Gulf issues B8bn in green bonds

Gulf Energy Development Plc has raised 8 billion baht in green bonds for its wind power project, together with 12 billion baht worth of non-green bonds.

The total issued bonds placed to institutional and high net worth investors across all tranches tallied 20 billion baht.

The company said the proceeds will be used for business expansion, debt repayment and as working capital.

Yupapin Wangviwat, deputy chief executive and chief financial officer of Gulf, said this is the first time Gulf issued green bonds for investing in renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, supporting the firm's clean energy mandate.

"The proceeds from this transaction will be used to refinance our investment in Borkum Riffgrund 2 project, which is an offshore wind power plant in Germany," she said.

Ms Yupapin said the green bonds, which were issued under Gulf's green financing framework and had a second party opinion from DNV Business Assurance Australia, received heavy interest from investors.

Gulf decided to increase the issue size to 8 billion baht from the 5 billion initially planned.

"Issuing 20 billion baht exceeded our expectation. The total demand more than doubled our target issuance size, coming from asset managers, insurance companies, cooperatives, banks and high net worth investors," she said.

"We would like to thank all investors for their interest and investments, which clearly showed their confidence in our strong performance and future growth potential."

Gulf's 8-billion-baht green bond issuance consists of two tranches: 4.5 billion debentures with a five-year tenor, and 3.5 billion debentures with a seven-year tenor, with coupon rates of 3.20% and 3.59% per year, respectively.

There were also three tranches of non-green bonds worth 12 billion baht: a three-year class worth 4.1 billion baht, a four-year class worth 4.4 billion and a 10-year class worth 3.5 billion, with coupon rates of 2.85%, 3.00% and 3.92% per year, respectively.

The average coupon rate across all tranches was 3.28%, while the average tenor was 5.6 years.

Gulf's credit rating is A+ with a stable outlook, while the bonds are rated A by Tris Rating Co.

Arrangers for the transactions comprise Bangkok Bank, Krungthai Bank, Bank of Ayudhya, Kasikornbank, TMBThanachart Bank, Siam Commercial Bank and Standard Chartered Bank (Thai).