Latvian TSO "Augstsprieguma tīkls" the first among the Baltic operators to issue Green bonds in the Nasdaq stock market

Announcements

Today, 7 October, The Financial and Capital Market Commission has registered the Base Prospectus of the First Programme for the Issuance of Notes of Augstsprieguma tīkls JSC (AST). The total amount of the programme in nominal value is 160 million euro.

In preparation for the imminent bond issue and in line with AST’s mission to ensure continuous, secure, and sustainably efficient electricity transmission throughout Latvia, AST has established a Green Bond Framework in alignment with the four core components of the International Capital Markets Association Green Bond Principles 2021. The framework has been reviewed by an external second party Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC and in their view is aligned with the abovementioned Green Bond Principles.

AST Chairperson of the Management Board Gunta Jēkabsone: “For the purpose of refinancing project investments made in previous years as well as to plan the future capital investments aimed at enabling large scale renewable energy integration into the Latvian power system and achieving synchronous interconnection of power system of the Baltic States and power system of the Continental Europe, AST is the first among the Baltic transmission system operators to debut in capital markets by issuing Green bonds. Issuance of Green bonds will facilitate transition towards zero emission power system and will support Baltic market development."

AST has mandated Luminor Bank AS as a Sole Lead Manager and Bookrunner to organise online investor meetings. Offering with expected size of 100 million euro with up to 7-year maturity will follow subject to market conditions. Notes are expected to be listed on the regulated market - the Baltic Bond List of Nasdaq Riga.

According to the credit opinion issued by international rating agency S&P Global Ratings in August 2021, AST has obtained a BBB+ long-term issuer rating with positive outlook.