Helaba successfully places green Schuldschein of Verbund AG using vc trade

Helaba Landes­bank Hessen-Thüringen has success­fully placed the “green” Schuld­schein in the market issued by Verbund AG, Austria's leading electricity company, using the fully-inte­grated digital issuing platform vc trade. The investors include Alliance Global Investors GmbH, UNIQA Österreich Versicherungen AG as well as Frankfurter Sparkasse. “We are delighted that it was possible to place the issue in the market within the planned time slot and with the previously agreed conditions among well-known investors”, stressed Peter Kollmann, a member of the Management Board (CFO) of Verbund AG. “The digital issuance format over vc trade in com­bination with Helaba’s long­standing expertise has proved its worth.”

Verbund AG’s “green” Schuld­schein in an amount of EUR 100 million has a duration of 10 years. Helaba used the vc trade platform for the first time to issue the note, which enables the entire process to be conducted in a fully digital environ­ment. “We are constantly looking for sustain­able invest­ment options, since demand is greater than the available supply. The green Schuld­schein from Verbund AG ideally suits our requirements”, said Thomas Schneider, the head of European Corporate Loans at Allianz Global Investors GmbH, describing the largest investor’s exposure. “Using the new platform to issue the Schuldschein has also proven to be effective: innovative, trans­parent and easy to implement.”

Hans-Dieter Kemler, the member of Helaba’s Board of Managing Directors responsible for capital market activities, expressed his delight on the success­ful launch: “We have had successful start to our collabor­ation with the digital platform. The fact that we were able to gain such prestigious investors for the first trans­action underlines our deter­mination to continue the journey we have embarked upon.” A further trans­action is already in the market.

The vc trade platform, which is based on the latest techno­logy, replicates the estab­lished process from the issuer all the way to the investor, with the involvement of the bank, in a fully digital environ­ment. This increases the trans­parency, efficiency and speed of the issue and significantly reduces trans­action costs. Issuers, investors, the arranging banks as well as lawyers and rating agencies all benefit from a consistent, transparent channel of communi­cation, shared data and file deposi­taries as well as interfaces that are built into the settlement systems.