The offering underscores a rush by borrowers to finance projects that will provide environmental benefits and support sustainable development. Singapore joins Hong Kong and countries such as Germany and Italy in selling green bonds this year, pushing global issuance of the environmentally friendly notes by sovereigns and companies to over US$344 billion ($465.5 billion) so far in 2023, up 18% from a year earlier, Bloomberg-compiled data show.
Singapore priced the notes to yield 3.04%, inside an earlier target of about 3.15%. The sale is part of an effort, announced last year, to raise as much as $35 billion of environment-focused financing by 2030. Proceeds from the deal will be used to finance expenditures in support of the Singapore Green Plan 2030, including the development of two routes on its electric rail network, according to a statement on the MAS website on Aug 21.
MAS hired Citigroup Inc., DBS Bank Ltd., Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., Standard Chartered Plc and United Overseas Bank Ltd. for the placement to institutions, while DBS, OCBC and UOB were participating banks for the public offering.
See also: Singapore plans to raise another $1.8 bil via its green bond
The note maturing in August 2072 traded above par at about 101 cents as of 2.11pm local time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s down from nearly 125 cents in May, but still higher than when priced at 98.976 cents.
