European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced that it has invested 53 million lei (the equivalent of 11 million euro) in the first green bond issue of Raiffeisen Bank Romania, informs a press release of the international financial institution.

Last week, Raiffeisen Bank S.A. placed for the first time for the Romanian banking sector the first issue of senior preferential green bonds. The bond issue was addressed to institutional investors and attracted 400.575 million lei, with a maturity of 5 years, at a fixed coupon of 3.086%, approximately 0.5 percentage points above the yield of government securities in reference lei with the same maturity. With a demand of almost 650 million lei, the issue was oversubscribed almost 1.6 times.

“The EBRD remains at the forefront of efforts to strengthen Romania’s capital market. Today we are pleased to support Romania’s first green bonds. This pioneering Raiffeisen move will pave the way for even more bonds to support sustainability, as evidenced by the strong reaction of market,” said EBRD Director for Romania and Bulgaria, Mark Davis.

The EBRD’s investment in Raiffeisen’s green bond issue is a continuation of the EBRD’s commitment to support the development of the Romanian capital market. In the last five years, the EBRD has subscribed to 11 bond issues with more than 530 million euros and participated in three initial and secondary public offerings in transactions worth more than 80 million euros, according to Agerpres.

In Romania, where the EBRD is a major investor, the Bank focuses on financing infrastructure, increasing productivity and consolidating the financial sector. To date, the EBRD has invested almost nine billion euros in the country’s economy, and 76% of these investments have gone to the private sector.

Since the beginning of this year, the EBRD has signed investment projects worth a total of 127 million euros in Romania, after last year providing funding of 340 million euros for the Romanian economy.