SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - With 1,749 applications totalling S$52.9 million from retail investors, Singapore's inaugural public offer of its green bonds had a subscription rate of 1.06.
All valid applicants who applied for the bonds received allotments either in full or in part, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in a public notice put up on its website after market hours on Thursday (Aug 11).
The public offering for Singapore's first sovereign green bonds, which comprised S$50 million, did not receive as high a demand as from among institutional investors, who were allocated S$2.35 billion of bonds on the back of a S$5.3 billion order book.
The first Singapore Government Securities (SGS) with a tenor of 50 years were priced to yield 3.04 per cent on Aug 4 through an institutional book-building process.
This reflected a coupon of 3 per cent and an offering price of $98.976 per S$100 in principal value.
More than 1,720 applicants who applied between $1,000 and $210,000 worth of bonds were fully allotted. This represented 88.6 per cent out of the $50 million on offer.
There were 21 applicants who applied for between $250,000 and $499,000 worth of bonds, and they were each given $228,000. The amount allocated to these applicants represented 9.6 per cent of the offer amount.
Four applicants who applied for more than $500,000 were each allotted $229,000, accounting for 1.8 per cent of the public offer.
The green SGS will be issued to retail investors on Aug 15.
MAS also said that institutional investors will be able to trade the green bonds in the SGS institutional market from Friday.
A key aspect of the green label for these green bonds is that proceeds will be used to finance expenditures in support of the Singapore Green Plan 2030, including two new MRT lines - the Jurong Region Line and the Cross Island Line.
These are the first in a series of expected sovereign green bonds issued under the Singapore Green Bond framework.
The Singapore Government has indicated a pipeline of up to $35 billion of sovereign and public sector green bonds that will be issued by 2030.
