Green Bond Awards 2018

Asset-backed/asset-based bond of the Year - Obvion

Obvion has scooped the award for best asset-backed bond for the second year in a row.

Deal highlights:

Issuer: Obvion

Size: €550 million

Maturity: five years weighted average life (WAL)

Coupon: 17 bps above three-month Euribor

Use of proceeds: Residential buildings

Credit rating: Aaa (Moody's), AAA (S&P)

Lead managers: Rabobank, Société Générale

External review: Sustainalytics

The largest mortgage lender in the Netherlands issued a €550 million ($613.5 million) residential mortgage-backed security that settled last May, slightly larger than its inaugural €500 million green bond in 2016.

The green bond is part of Obvion's residential mortgage securitisation programme known as STORM, which has about €17.9 billion of outstanding securities.

Obvion will use the proceeds for new residential buildings built after 2002 that represent the top 15% in terms of energy performance, or residential buildings built before 2002 that have achieved at least a 30% improvement in energy performance

One judge described Obvion's green bond issue as "well structured, with real impact".

Rachelle Rijk, head of balance sheet management and funding at Obvion – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rabobank – told Environmental Finance: "We wanted, to the extent possible, to put these green bonds in the hands of truly green investors. The interest for Green STORM 2017 was again overwhelming. The order book of this transaction approached €1.4 billion."

The bond's maturity is five years weighted average life. It has a coupon of 17 basis points above three-month Euribor, which Rijk described as "a record low post financial crisis spread".

Obvion took the unusual step of sourcing a second opinion from Sustainalytics as well as a certification under the Climate Bonds Standards, also from Sustainalytics.

It received ratings of Aaa and AAA from Moody's and S&P Global, respectively.

Rabobank and Société Générale were lead managers of the transaction, as they were for Obvion's previous green bond.