Following its success with the first-ever Euro denominated Green Bond issue from the MENA region last week, First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC (“FAB”), rated Aa3 by Moody’s, AA- by Standard & Poor’s and AA- by Fitch (all with stable outlook), today priced a highly successful Green Bond issue in the Swiss Franc market. The CHF 200 million 4-year Bond was issued at SARON + 54 bps and a coupon of 1.0625%.
This was FAB’s second public green issuance in 2022 (following the highly successful Euro 500 million Green Bond issued last week) and marked FAB’s return to the Swiss Franc market since 2021. Despite the challenging market conditions, the deal was a great success by achieving FAB’s target size as well as price objectives. The bank was able to attract a high-quality Swiss investor base that has now developed name familiarity with FAB. Pricing of the deal compares favourably to the bank’s USD funding levels when swapped back to USD as well as priced inside FAB’s CHF curve.
The bond was executed as a Green Bond under FAB’s Sustainable Finance Framework reaffirming FAB’s commitment to sustainable financing, in line with the UAE’s net zero 2050 strategic initiative.
Rula Al Qadi, Managing Director and Head of Group Funding at FAB, said: “We are delighted to be back in the Swiss Franc market with an immensely successful green bond issuance today. Given the challenging market conditions, FAB has been able to successfully access niche markets like the Euro last week and the Swiss Franc today that are helping us achieve our price and size objectives. This is our third Green Swiss Franc bond issuance, and we remain the only bank from the MENA region to issue green bonds in the Swiss Francs market. This highlights the importance of our commitment to achieving net zero by 2050, in line with the vision of the UAE. Today’s deal priced inside our CHF curve and compares favourably to our USD curve (on a swapped basis), which is testament to FAB’s credit standing amongst international investors.”
