Norton Rose Fulbright advises Ecobank on Nature Bond first

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Ecobank Transnational Incorporated ("ETI") on its $450 million 8.875% Fixed Rate Reset Tier 2 Nature Bonds, listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.

This is the first commercial bank globally to issue a use-of-proceeds green bond with the ICMA Nature Bond secondary designation, and the first ICMA-aligned nature bond from any African commercial bank. Moody's Ratings awarded the transaction a Sustainability Quality Score of "SQS1 - Excellent", the highest possible score. This is the first SQS1 awarded to any pan-African commercial bank.

An amount equivalent to the full net proceeds will be allocated to the eligible pool of sustainable agriculture and water infrastructure loans across 24 African countries in accordance with ETI's published Sustainable Agriculture and Nature Capital Bond Framework, on which Moody's Ratings issued its Second Party Opinion.

The transaction was anchored by the Dutch development bank FMO, with Standard Chartered Bank and Renaissance Capital Africa acting as the joint bookrunners.

ETI is the holding company for the leading pan-African banking group with a presence in 34 African countries across Western, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa, with group international offices in Paris, London, Dubai and Beijing. The group is systemically important across sub-Saharan Africa, servicing regional and global corporations, governments, international institutions and more than 32 million customers.

The Norton Rose Fulbright team advising ETI was led by London-based debt capital markets partner Peter Young, with assistance from counsel Julian Walley, senior associate Dionysis Diamantatos and trainee solicitor Natalia Oughton.

Peter Young commented:

"We are absolutely delighted to have advised ETI on this transaction, affirming its continued commitment to sustainable financing. This marks yet another milestone for this leading pan-African banking group, which operates in multiple emerging and frontier markets with evolving political, economic and regulatory challenges. It was a pleasure to see this Nature Bond heavily over-subscribed with strong investor demand from the United Kingdom, continental Europe, the United States, the Middle East, Asia and Africa."

Norton Rose Fulbright previously advised ETI on the related any-and-all tender offer for its outstanding Tier 2 Sustainability Notes due 2031, which in 2021 was the first Tier 2 sustainability bond issued by a financial institution in sub-Saharan Africa.