SINGAPORE - Singapore's central bank looks to raise at least $1.5 billion with the inaugural sale of a sovereign green bond, whose proceeds will finance projects with environmental benefits, including the Jurong Region Line and Cross Island Line.
The first sovereign green bond - called Green Singapore Government Securities (Infrastructure), or Green SGS (Infra) - will be launched via a book-building process within the week, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced on Monday (Aug 1).
Both institutional and individual investors can apply to purchase the bonds.
The green bond will be denominated in Singapore dollars with a tenor of either 30 or 50 years, at a minimum issuance size of about $1.5 billion.
The exact tenor and issuance size will be determined based on prevailing market conditions, MAS said in a statement.
This first sovereign green bond is part of a pipeline of up to $35 billion of sovereign and public sector green bonds that the Singapore Government and its statutory boards will issue by 2030, which was previously announced at Budget 2022. It supports the Singapore Green Plan 2030, the national agenda on sustainable development.
The Green SGS (Infra) will be issued under the Singapore Green Bond Framework, which details guidelines for green bonds issued by the public sector as well as other information such as the operational approach to managing green bond proceeds.
MAS said the planned issuance of the first sovereign green bond marks the introduction of syndication as a new method for issuing Singapore Government Securities, complementing the regular schedule of SGS auctions where buyers have to submit bids for the government bonds.
Syndication involves the appointment of a group of banks, or bookrunners, to jointly market and distribute a bond.
"As the issuance parameters such as tenor and size are determined on the date the SGS bond is priced, syndication enhances the Government's ability to issue across varied market conditions," the central bank said.
Institutional investors interested in the first green bond can approach the appointed bookrunners for more information. They are DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, OCBC Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
For the public offer, MAS will announce on its website the offer size, yield, price and application timeline after the bond has been priced in the institutional market.
Subsequently, retail investors will be able to apply for the bonds via application channels, such as ATMs and online banking platforms, provided by DBS/POSB, OCBC and UOB after MAS announces the opening of the public offer.
