The National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has successfully priced its inaugural $500 million green bonds under its Global Medium Term Note programme. These green bonds have a maturity of 6 years with a first call date after 5 years.
Issued in both Reg S and Rule 144A formats, these bonds mark a historic debut in the domain of green bonds from a Kuwaiti financial institution. NBK is the exclusive FI issuer in the 144A format, granting US investors access to a rare opportunity outside their country.
The total order book for this new issuance reached $1.5 billion, resulting in an oversubscription of over 3 times. US investors accounted for 49 percent of the issuance, followed by Middle Eastern investors at 26 percent, UK investors at 18 percent, European investors at 5 percent, and Asian investors contributing 2 percent.
Breaking down the bond coverage by investor type, asset managers represented 69 percent, followed by banks and private banks at 22 percent, while governments, insurance companies, and pension funds comprised 9 percent of the total investor base.