Press releases

The Hera Group has successfully placed a bond for qualified investors on the Eurobond market, with a nominal amount coming to 500 million euro and a 10-year maturity.

This new issue immediately met with strong interest from investors in all main European countries. In a single day, orders were indeed received for 4 times the offer. Due to the quantity and quality of the orders received, the price was set at an excellent rate, equal to the Mid Swap Rate +60 basis points, and a coupon coming to 0.25%, the lowest amount for an Italian corporate bond with an equal length to maturity.

The notes will be issued as part of the Euro Medium Term Notes Programme (updated on 24 November 2020 increasing to 3.5 billion euro the maximum principal amount of notes that may be simultaneously outstanding) and will be listed on the regulated market of the Irish Stock Exchange (Euronext Dublin) with a return set at 0.348%. The  settlement is scheduled for 3 December 2020.

The notes are expected to have the same rating as the Hera Group: Moody’s rating Baa2 with a stable outlook and Standard & Poor’s rating BBB with a positive outlook.

The proceeds of the bond will be used to finance the Group’s investments in the waste management, water and energy sectors, which will introduce innovative interventions that follow up on the attention towards sustainability that has always characterized the Group’s activities.

Sustainability and the Hera Group

Since its establishment, 18 years ago, Hera has always integrated sustainability objectives into its strategies in all business areas, combining continuously growing economic results with the creation of shared value for all stakeholders and local areas served, guaranteeing efficiency and resilience, safeguarding the environment and protecting natural resources. This model has continued to guide the Group’s activities, all the more so during the current year, with the difficulties created by the ongoing health emergency.

The Hera Group’s sustainability has received further confirmation by its recent inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), one of the world’s most authoritative stock market indices for assessing social responsibility, which selects the leading companies internationally based on the best ESG performances. In addition to becoming part of the world and European indices at the same time, Hera ranked as “Industry leader” among the approximately 3,500 companies with the highest capitalization globally examined by the DJSI.

The partners in the operation

The issuance of the bond was coordinated by a pool of banks acting as joint bookrunners: BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank, IMI - Intesa Sanpaolo, Mediobanca and UniCredit Bank.

Legance - Avvocati Associati assisted Hera, while and the firm Linklaters advised the joint bookrunners.

Documents pertaining to this bond will be available on the website www.gruppohera.it in the Investor Relations section, as well as on the 1INFO authorized storage mechanism at www.1info.it.