National Australia Bank (NAB) priced a $300m (£246m) green bond that will help improve the environmental performance of shopping centres owned by QIC Shopping Centre Fund (QSCF), one of the largest shopping centre landlords in Australia.
The QSCF green bond is the world’s first Climate Bond-certified green bond to be issued by a retail property landlord. It will fund the continued evolution of, and investments in, energy efficiency to improve the environmental performance of Toowoomba’s Grand Central, Robina Town Centre on the Gold Coast and Eastland in Melbourne.
Improvements include energy efficient technologies such as new building management systems, LED lighting, upgraded heating and cooling systems, as well as exploring a rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) program. The work is expected to reduce each of the centres’ greenhouse gas emissions intensity by more than 35 per cent over the next three years.
NAB Chief Customer Officer Corporate & Institutional Banking David Gall said the bond is an important milestone for sustainable investments.
“This transaction has created a new way for commercial property owners such as QIC to diversify funding sources and drive improvements in environmental sustainability of their buildings,” Mr Gall said.
“NAB is proud to help QIC finance its transition towards a low carbon economy and bring yet another market first green bond to the Australian market.
This is the seventh green or sustainable bond NAB has brought to market so far in 2019, and is the 25th green, social and sustainability bond to date. In arranging this bond, NAB also helped QSCF develop a Sustainability Financing Framework so that it can continue to raise debt funding via more green bonds, green loans, social bonds or sustainability bonds.”
QSCF Manager Michael Fattouh said the green bond was well received by investors across Asia and Australia, attracting investors with green and ESG investment mandates who are new to QSCF. Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corp made a cornerstone investment in the transaction.
“We are proud to have achieved this world first for the retail property sector and deliver on the objectives of our investors to make meaningful and tangible progress towards enhancing our sustainability performance,” Mr Fattouh said.
Source: Company Press Release.
