Vonovia Issues Its First Green Bond for € 600 Million to Finance Sustainable Investments

• Ten-year maturity and 0.625 % coupon
• Helene von Roeder: “Excellent addition to our financing mix and further evidence of our sustainability strategy”

Bochum, Germany, March 17, 2021 – Vonovia SE (“Vonovia”) issued its first green bond today. The ten-year bond with a volume of € 600 million was oversubscribed five times and will bear 0.625 % interest per year.

As a large residential real estate company, Vonovia assumes environmental and social responsibility. The green bond issuance marks further progress on Vonovia’s sustainability strategy, which is based on the areas of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG). Among other things, Vonovia has committed to a binding climate path for a virtually climate-neutral building stock by 2050 and introduced the Sustainability Performance Index, which makes its sustainability objectives measurable from year to year.

“We have been systematically reducing the carbon footprint of our buildings from the 50s and 60s since 2015 through energy-efficient modernization. We are also building energy-efficient new constructions. Nowadays, investors expect companies to conduct their business in a sustainable manner. Thus, the green bond is the perfect combination,” says Helene von Roeder, Vonovia’s Chief Financial Officer. “Furthermore: Green bonds are a future-oriented addition to our financing strategy that we can already use today to further expand our investor base.”

The additional financing options through green bonds put Vonovia in an even better position to actively contribute to solutions for the key ESG challenges. Vonovia plans to use the additional liquidity from green bonds to refinance sustainability projects in Germany, Austria and Sweden. These include investments in buildings, for example through new construction or modernization projects that lead to energy efficiency class B or better (in Austria minimum A) and that were initiated within the last 36 months. Other investment projects include renewable energy, for instance generating solar energy through additional photovoltaic installations.

“We will continue to make comprehensive investments to achieve our goal of establishing a virtually climate-neutral portfolio by 2050,” says Helene von Roeder.

The green bond is yet another step taken by Vonovia to further develop its financing strategy. At the start of the year, the company forged ahead in digitization and, for the first time, issued a fully digital registered bond – which was also a novelty on the capital market. To do so, the company used blockchain technology for the transfer of ownership of the bond and created the necessary security token for it using the online marketplace firstwire.


2021 Financial Calendar:

April 16, 2021: Annual General Meeting
May 4, 2021: Interim Statement for the first quarter of 2021
August 6, 2021: Interim Financial Report for 2021
November 4, 2021: Interim Statement for the first nine months of 2021