Danish pensions administrator PKA has invested a further DKK1.5bn (€200m) into Dutch sovereign green bonds, securing around 20% of the new issuance as the Netherlands tapped international markets a second time after its inaugural €5.9bn green bond was launched last May.
The Dutch State Treasury Agency said on 14 January it re-opened its DSL 2040 green bond, and raised €1.19bn.
PKA, which runs labour-market pensions mainly in the health and social care sectors, said there had been considerable interest from various investors to get hold of the green bonds, and that it managed to be allotted 20% of the total issue.
The money raised by the long-dated green government bonds will be spent on more renewable energy, climate-friendly transport and climate adaptation projects, PKA said.
PKA’s chief executive officer Peter Damgaard Jensen said: “Creating the necessary green restructuring of our society requires enormous amounts of money, and this is a task that cannot be managed by the public purse alone.”
This made it gratifying that PKA, as a private investor, could contribute to the financing of a number of green projects, such as those set to receive funding from the Dutch green bond, he said.
At the same time, Damgaard Jensen said, the bond added a reasonable investment with a low risk level to PKA’s portfolio.
This new investment brought PKA’s total green bond holdings to DKK3.5bn, the pension fund firm said, adding that it planned to increase this figure in the next few years.
Damgaard Jensen, who is to retire in March after 19 years as CEO, is a leading figure in Denmark’s efforts to promote sustainable investment.
Last month, he helped launch the Climate Investment Coalition (CIC), a scheme created by the Danish pensions sector and government to foster more private funding for clean energy and climate investments.
PKA has total assets worth DKK300bn.
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