Singapore started its green bond sale to raise as much as S$2.8 billion ($2.1 billion) by reopening an existing 50-year maiden note it sold last year, adding resources to its climate-change efforts.
The city-state — which boosted the size from an earlier target of at least S$1.8 billion — plans to raise as much as S$2.75 billion via a placement to institutions and S$50 million through a public offering, according to details on the website of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, or MAS, which is acting as a government agent in the sale. The initial pricing guidance for the deal was around 3.15%.
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 $344 billion so far in 2023, up 18% from year earlier, Bloomberg-compiled data show.
Singapore’s planned offering will be for at least S$2.3 billion and is part of an effort, announced last year, to raise as much as S$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 are participating banks for the public offering.
The note maturing in August 2072 traded above par at about 101 Singapore cents as of 2:11 p.m. 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.
