RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Chile is selling bonds linked to its sustainability goals, thus becoming the first nation to do so.
The government will sell dollar-denominated Sustainability Linked Bonds (SLBs) with a 20-year maturity. The offering could yield 2.4 percentage points above Treasuries, said the source, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.
The SLB offering is part of a US$2 billion ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) bond sale the country planned to issue last month, adding to the US$4 billion already raised in that format this year.
That would complete this year’s US$6 billion foreign market issuance target, Cristobal Gamboni, director of the Finance Ministry’s newly established Green Finance Office, said in an interview in February.
BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, and Société Générale are managing the bond sales, the person said.
Global sales of SLBs, a subset of ESG debt, reached a record US$110 billion last year, up from US$11 billion issued in 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.