The Ministry of Finance reported that it issued sustainable bonds in international markets for a total of 1.5 billion dollars. The operation is part of the financing plan for 2021 published in December 2020.
The operation consisted of the issuance of new Formosa bonds denominated and payable in US dollars maturing in the year 2053. A Formosa bond is a bond which is issued in Taiwan but is denominated by a currency other than the Taiwan dollar. The operation reached a demand of 2.3 times and ended with a placement rate of 3.5 %, the lowest rate achieved by a sovereign through a Formosa bond, equivalent to a spread on the US Treasury bond of 112 basis points. The bonds were issued under New York law and were registered with the regulator of the United States of America (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC), using Chile’s Shelf-registration line. The issuance was made with a double listing: the London Stock Exchange and the Taipei Stock Exchange.
The issuance was carried out by the team of the Office of Public Debt of the Ministry of Finance with the participation of underwriters banks (Goldman Sachs and Credit Agricole), a bank acting as structuring agent (Bank of America Merrill Lynch International), the international legal advice of the Linklaters law firm and the local legal counseling from the Morales y Besa law firm.
To date, Chile has issued approximately 14.4 bilion dollars in thematic bonds since 2019, of which 7.7 bilion are green bonds, 5.2 bilion are social, and 1.5 bilion are sustainable bonds issued. With this latest issuance, thematic bonds represent 15.5% of the Central Government’s debt stock.