Lithuania's Lietuvos Energija sells EUR-300m green bond

Renewable energy generation in Lithuania. Source: Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Lithuania.

July 5 (Renewables Now) - Lithuania’s state-owned Lietuvos Energija has issued EUR 300 million (USD 350.9m) worth of green bonds in a drive to finance investment in renewable energy and grid enhancement projects.

The power distribution group, one of the largest in the Baltic States, owns hydropower and pumped-hydro storage plants, wind farms, natural gas facilities and power distribution grids. Earlier this year, it started building a combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Vilnius, expected to produce 87.6 MW of electricity and 227 MW of heat.

In a press release on Wednesday, Lietuvos Energija said that funds from the bond issue will be allocated for further investment in the wind energy sector, co-generation and biomass projects and improvements to the power distribution grid’s efficiency.

The EUR-300-million bond was purchased by 115 investors in a placement that was four times oversubscribed. The transaction involved investors from France, Germany, the UK, Italy and Lithuania. The securities mature in 10 years and have a yield of 2.066%. They will be listed on the Luxembourg and the Nasdaq Vilnius stock exchanges.

The joint lead managers and bookrunners for the bond offering were BNP Paribas, JP Morgan and SEB.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.170)