Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), the largest state-owned supplier of hydroelectric power in Pakistan, raised $500mn via a debut 10Y green dollar bond at a yield of 7.5%, over ~50bp inside initial guidance of low 8%. The bonds have expected ratings of B3/B-/B- and received orders over $2.2bn, 4.4x issue size. “We had very early bookbuild momentum because of the captive Asian demand,” said a lead banker, adding that the deal was also being driven by Emerging Market Bond Index and green portfolio accounts. Proceeds will be used to finance and/or refinance eligible green projects as per their green bond framework including hydropower and wind power electricity generation projects. WAPDA’s new bond was priced 74bp wider to the Pakistan sovereign’s (B3/B-/B-) USD 7.375% 2031s issued last month that currently yields 6.76% on the secondary market. Moody’s notes that WAPDA has a weak financial profile due to large capital spending on hydro capacity expansion and delay in revenue collection.
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