BVP plans to raise €7.5m through ‘green bonds’

BVP, a green investment firm, is planning to raise €7.5 million for investment in renewable energy projects and established trading investments through the issuance of so-called “green bonds”.

The company, which currently has over 20 companies in its portfolio including energy-saving specialist UrbanVolt, is offering to pay investors a fixed annual coupon of 6 per cent a year over five years, or an alternative 33.8 per cent at the end of the investment term. Minimum investment has been set at €10,000.

"Green bond issuance globally was over €130 billion in 2017 and these options are increasingly accessible for retail investors too," said Elliott Griffin, managing director of BVP, adding that the firm is in advanced discussions with a number of companies about investment.

We will split investments between renewable energy projects and growing, established trading businesses

The planning fundraising comes at a time when Ireland's National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) is actively considering launching its inaugural "green bond" in the next six to 12 months as it seeks to access a fast-growing segment of the market and diversify its sources of finance.

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Investor demand

In 2016, Poland became the first country to issue green bonds to finance climate and environment investments. It has since been followed by a raft of other countries, such as France, Indonesia and Belgium, as governments globally seek to live up to the Paris climate agreement and investor demand grows for socially responsible investment opportunities.

Mr Griffin said that the opportunities the firm is looking at show that it is possible to create an environmental and social benefit alongside a good investor return. He said an example of a project it is looking at is a wind farm which will have the environmental impact over its lifetime of the “equivalent of taking 23,000 cars off the road for one year, or the carbon impact of 10 years of planting nearly three million tree seedlings”.

“We will split investments between renewable energy projects and growing, established trading businesses,” he said. “The renewable energy projects provide asset backing for the investment. The trading businesses generate potential for greater upside investor returns.”