Telefónica steps up social and environmental projects

06/12/2021

Telefónica, pioneer in sustainable financing within the telco industry, has recently issued a 750 million euros sustainable hybrid bond, bringing up to 3,250 million euros the total obtained by the company in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) bonds over the last two years to finance social and environmental projects.

The hybrid bond issuance was very well received by institutional investors, with a book of over 175 orders and a broadly diversified investor base with over 90% international investor participation. The bond has a 6.5 year reset date and a yield of 2.875%, Societe Generale acted as joint bookrunner.

The proceeds from the issuance will be used to finance or refinance projects with positive environmental and social impact in Spain, Germany and Brazil that will contribute to sustainable development goals (SDG) 9, 8 and 7*. Environmental projects will focus on energy efficiency continuing the transformations of the network from copper to fiber. On the other hand, social projects will mainly focus on bringing mobile broadband connectivity to unserved or poorly connected rural areas as well as supporting employment generation and entrepreneurship.  

After a total of three issuances in the last two years, Telefónica today reinforces its commitment to sustainable financing with a focus on social and environmental projects, explains the company. 

Telefónica launched the industry’s first green bond in January 2019, amounting to 1 billion euros, and a year later, in January 2020, it issued the first green hybrid bond, up to 500 million. Finally, in February 2021 it became the first telco to issue a sustainable hybrid bond, incorporating social projects to its financing work, and with which it obtained an additional 1 billion euros. With this last sustainable hybrid bond Telefónica has raised a volume of sustainable financing of 3,250 million euros, the largest cumulative amount in the global telecommunications sector.

We are proud to accompany Telefónica in this deal and to contribute to environmental and social projects with positive impact, adds Fernando García, Head of Debt Capital Markets for Iberia. 

*Find out more about the Sustainable Development Goals