AFD successfully issued a new 2 billion dollars sustainable bond maturing on june 15th, 2027

This new transaction marks the fourth bond issuance since the beginning of the year and in particular the second dollar-denominated issuance for 2024, after issuing a 5-year 2 billion dollars sustainable bond back in February. It is at par with AFD’s most important transactions in terms of size and orderbook and confirms the ongoing support of investors towards AFD’s signature.

Transaction highlights:

The final spread is 49 bps over the SOFR Mid-Swap curve, equating to an annual re-offer yield of 4.039% and a re-offer price of 99.913%, with a coupon of 4.000%.

Samia Ben Mebarek, Deputy Head of Financing and Market Operations at AFD: “Given the likely busy September agenda, we took advantage of the favorable reopening of the bond market to issue a new USD 2-billion sustainable benchmark. We are very pleased with the success and the market reception of this bond and would like to thank investors for their support.” 

Execution and allocations:

After a strong reopening of the SSA USD primary market during the second half of August, this new benchmark issuance was announced at 11:09 CET on Tuesday, August 27th, 2024. IPTs were released in the wake of the mandate at SOFR MS+51 bps area. The transaction quickly garnered strong demand right after its announcement, with lols above 2.8 billion dollars (including USD 525 million JLM interest). Thus orderbooks opened the day after at 9:16 CET with guidance tightened by 1 bp at SOFR MS+50 bps.

Solid support from investors was quickly confirmed in the morning (at 10:40 CET orderbooks were already above 4.3 billion dollars, including 575 million dollars of JLM interest), allowing to set the final spread 1 bp tighter at 49 bps. Investors maintained their interest during the rest of the morning and orderbooks reached more than 5.4 billion dollars (including 575 million dollars of JLM interest) just before 13:05 CET, allowing the issuer to launch the transaction and set the final size at 2 billion. Allocations were communicated to the market at 15:23 CET. Final terms were confirmed at 16:37 CET with an annual coupon of 4.000% and an annual yield of 4.039%.

In terms of geographic allocations, this transaction highlights the presence of AFD not only in European markets but also outside of EU, with 42% allocated in Europe but also 26% in Americas, 21% in Asia and 11% in Middle East & Africa. In terms of allocations by investor type, the distribution of this transaction benefited from high-quality demand with a big portion of allocations given to central banks and official institutions up to 62%, as well as 25% to asset managers and insurance companies, 11% to banks and finally 2% for other investors.

Transaction details:

• Issuer: Agence française de développement
• Ratings: AA- (S&P, stable) / AA- (Fitch, stable)
• Transaction Size: US$ 2 billion
• Issuing Date: August 28, 2024
• Settlement Date: September 4, 2024
• Maturity Date: June 15th, 2027   
• Re-offer Price: 99.913%
• Coupon: 4.000% p.a., ACT/ACT (ICMA) 
• Annual re-offer Yield: 4.039%
• Final Spread: 49 basis points
• Listing: Euronext Paris
• Joint Lead Managers: BNP Paribas, Barclays, Citigroup, Crédit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank

Contact: _AFD_Funding@afd.fr

To know more: Investor's page