ESG & Sustainable Investing

As with many things ESG related, interest in, and issuance of, green bonds is growing rapidly.

Green bonds have seen dramatic growth both in terms of market size and media coverage in recent years. In 2019 we saw $237bn of issuance, a 62% increase on 2018’s $146bn, from a mixture of sovereigns, financials and corporates; and in its wake has come a proliferation of dedicated green bond funds.

Today BBVA announced it would be issuing the first ever green Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bond, a perpetual non-call 5.5-year with initial price thoughts at 6.5%, and immediately sparked a spirited debate among the TwentyFour team over how green bank capital can be.

As regular readers of this blog will know, TwentyFour has adopted ESG integration throughout its investment process for all strategies, and launched its first sustainable fund offering in January 2020. In doing so, we have engaged in some fascinating debates with clients and peers about the growing impact of ESG objectives on the fund management industry, and on fixed income markets in particular. Here are a few of our predictions for the years ahead.

Companies, even earnings pressured ones, now need to seriously consider the negative impact on their long term cost of capital from short term decisions to shore up P&L.