First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) has priced a highly successful Green Bond issue in the Swiss Franc (CFH) market, following its success with the first-ever Euro-denominated Green Bond issue from the MENA region last week.
The $214 million 4-year Bond was issued at Swiss Average Rate Overnight (SARON) + 54 bps and a coupon of 1.0625 percent.
This was FAB’s second public green issuance in 2022 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.
Rula Al Qadi MD & Head Group Funding FAB
“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 highlights the importance of our commitment to achieving net-zero by 2050, in line with the vision of the UAE. Today’s deal is priced inside our CHF curve and compares favorably to our USD curve, which is testament to FAB’s credit standing amongst international investors.”
The bank was able to attract a high-quality Swiss investor base that has now developed name familiarity with FAB. The pricing of the deal compares favorably to the bank’s USD funding levels when swapped back to USD as well as priced inside FAB’s CHF curve. The bond was issued as a Green Bond under FAB’s Sustainable Finance Framework, in line with the UAE’s net-zero 2050 strategic initiative.
