June 6 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Tuesday it is investing 30 million euro ($32 million) in a bond issue of Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA), the Croatian subsidiary of Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International, by participating in a publicly placed issuance of 300 million euro.
This represents the first ever international bond issuance by RBA and will be listed on Luxembourg Stock Exchange, the EBRD said in a press release.
The investment is the EBRD’s fifth purchase of a senior preferred bond eligible under the European Union’s Minimum Requirement for own funds and Eligible Liabilities (MREL) issued by a local financial institution in Croatia, and its third purchase related to RBA.
The two previous EBRD investments were in privately placed RBA bonds issued under the same MREL-eligible programme: 39 million euro on November 4, 2021 in an issuance of 130 million euro, and 60 million euro on September 30, 2022 in RBA’s first sustainability bond issuance, totalling 200 million euro.
The new funding will help RBA achieve regulatory compliance, diversify its funding base and increase its loss-absorption capacity and crisis resilience. The proceeds will also further promote the EBRD’s green agenda in Croatia. RBA will allocate an amount equal to 120% of EBRD investment to its own lending to green projects, mainly in the fields of renewable energy, green buildings and energy efficiency, which would be eligible under the EBRD’s Green Economy Transition (GET) approach.
($ = 0.935 euro)
Raiffeisenbank Austria d.d. is among the biggest banks in SEE. You can download our SEE Top 100 ranking
here or subscribe to our free Top 100 newsletter
here