TAQA Group Completes $1.5 Billion Dual Tranche 5-year and 10-year Bond Offering

Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA), one of the largest listed integrated utility companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, on Tuesday announced the successful placement of an aggregate $1.5 billion in 5-year and 10-year dual-tranche senior unsecured notes.

The 10-year notes, sized at $1 billion and maturing on 24 April 2033, were issued at a coupon rate of 4.696%. These notes represent TAQA’s first green bond issuance and net proceeds of the issuance will be used to finance, refinance, and invest in relevant eligible green projects, as outlined in the company’s Green Finance Framework.

The 5-year notes, sized at $500 million and maturing on 24 January 2029, were issued as conventional bonds at a coupon rate of 4.375%. Proceeds from these bonds will be used for general corporate purposes.

With a final order book approaching $15 billion, the transaction was almost ten times oversubscribed with a strong demand from domestic, regional, and international investors. The Notes are expected to be rated Aa3 by Moody’s and AA- by Fitch, in line with the corporate credit ratings of the company.

The issuance was arranged and offered through a syndicate of joint lead managers and bookrunners comprising of BNP Paribas, Emirates NBD Capital, First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC, ICBC, IMI-Intesa Sanpaolo, Scotiabank, SMBC Nikko and Standard Chartered.

In establishing its Green Finance Framework, TAQA has received support from Citi, Standard Chartered Bank, MUFG and HSBC as Joint Sustainability Structuring Banks alongside First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) as Sustainability Finance Framework Advisor.

Jasim Husain Thabet, TAQA’s Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, commented that TAQA has yet again achieved competitive funding in their latest bond offering which has attracted strong demand from investors across several capital markets.

“In addition to this, TAQA’s clear ESG Strategy and decarbonisation agenda has enabled us to complete our first ever green bond, following the launch of our new Green Finance Framework and allows us to cater to the growing demand for investors seeking credible green investment opportunities,” he said.

“In the ‘Year of Sustainability,’ TAQA is demonstrating how utility companies can have ambitious growth targets and prioritise solid returns, whilst working towards a net zero future,” Thabet added.

TAQA Offering Oversubscribed

Stephen Ridlington, TAQA’s Group Chief Financial Officer, said that the successful completion of this latest dual-tranche bond offering, which was several times oversubscribed, reinforced investors’ confidence in the financial fundamentals of TAQA.

The Company has once again achieved extremely competitive funding rates and locked in interest rates in line with the company’s existing corporate interest cost and they were pleased with these results, particularly considering the trend of rising interest rates since last year.

“In addition to this, we have successfully completed our first green bond issuance. This follows the recent release of our Green Finance Framework, which was awarded a SQS2 (particularly good) sustainability score by Moody’s. We remain committed to maintaining our investment grade credit ratings to ensure we can continue to competitively fund future growth,” he added.

TAQA has recently established the Green Finance Framework. Moody’s has issued a Second Party Opinion on the TAQA’s Green Finance Framework.

About TAQA Group

TAQA Group is headquartered in Abu Dhabi with operations in the UAE and beyond. The company is the top ten integrated utilities champion in the EMEA region with power and water and oil and gas operations in eleven countries around the world.

Though established in 2005, TAQA’s success story began in 1998 with the privatization of Abu Dhabi’s power and water sector, underscoring the importance of water security and provision of power to communities across the UAE.

This move paved the way for TAQA’s establishment as a publicly listed company on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) in 2005. Since then, the company has grown into a diversified company with operations in the UAE as well as Canada, Ghana, India, Iraq, Morocco, Netherlands, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UK, and the US.