Acorn Green Medium-Term-Note (MTN) programme has closed the final tranche with the issuer raising KSh 2.1 Billion against a target of KSh 1.4 Billion, representing a performance rate of 146%.
According to Edward Kirathe, CEO of Acorn Holdings Limited, the oversubscription of this green bond indicates tremendous confidence in Acorn and a boost to the Capital Markets given the ongoing adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the Acorn Green Bond has and will continue to pay coupons promptly due to the appropriate project bond structure that has been put in place from the start.
The Acorn Green Bond has registered an oversubscription at a time when new issuances are being witnessed in a corporate bond market that has been on a dry spell for close to two years now.
“We are thankful for the continued support of GuarantCo and PIDG as part of our journey to provide safe, secure and affordable accomodation to University and College students in Kenya,” said Kirathe.
The programme enjoys a partial credit guarantee of 50% of the principal and interest by GuarantCo, which mobilise local credit solutions for infrastructure projects and are members of the Private Infrastructure Development Group(PIDG).
Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund(EAIF), the anchor investor and a member of the PIDG, advanced KSh 1.279 Billion into the programme.
Acorn initial Green MTN programme
The initial tranche was deployed to construct 6 environmentally friendly and purpose-built accommodation(PBSA) properties in Nairobi.
The buildings are benchmarked against the IFC EDGE green building standards for water, energy, and materials use to achieve low operational costs and low carbon impact in the long-term period.
In October 2019, the real estate firm issued a KSh 5 Billion MTN programme, which became the first Green Bond in Kenya. In the process, the first tranche of the issue raised KSh 4.262 Billion against a target of KSh 2 Billion.
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