Credit Agricole CIB tops Q4 green bond underwriters table, BAML is N1 for 2015

Credit Agricole made it to the top of the green bond underwriters table in the fourth quarter (Q4) of the year, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) takes the crown for 2015.

Today SeeNews is publishing pieces of the Climate Bonds Initiative's (CBI) green bond underwriters overview for the fourth quarter (Q4) and the whole of 2015. The text was originally published on the CBI blog by chief executive Sean Kidney.

Credit Agricole CIB tops Q4 green bond underwriters table; the overall 2015 year end top spot goes to BAML!

Q4 is in particular a busy quarter for green bonds -- a total of USD 14.87 billion were issued, and November was the largest monthly issuance EVER with USD 7.4 billion of green bonds. Top of the Q4 underwriters table is Credit Agricole CIB with its total Q4 underwriting deals of USD 994 million dominated by issuances from development banks. Besides being the sole manager for two of its own green bond issuances, CACIB was also involved in various big issuances in the quarter such as green bond from EDF, KfW, Nafin, NRW Bank and ING.

HSBC closely followed to take the second place in Q4 league table – greatly driven by its sole underwriting on its own inaugural green bonds as well as its involvement in NRW Bank issuance.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) comes third in Q4, supported by involvement in issuances in a wide range of regions and markets. Deals included the green bonds from Agricultural Bank of China, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, NAFIN, US muni bonds and Export Development Canada.

We also welcomed some new underwriters to the market in Q4! Both Agricultural Bank of China and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp are new underwriters of green bonds.

Now turning to our 2015 annual league table…

BAML took the crown of the top green bond underwriter of 2015! Always ranked in the top 5 throughout the year, the bank underwrote about USD 4.57 billion in total. Almost 30% of its deals (in issued amount) are issued in the US, but the bank’s involvement also reaches Europe, Canada, Mexico and Asia.

Credit Agricole CIB is ranked as the second largest green bond underwriter of the year. Underwriting nearly 50 deals, CACIB accounts for USD 3.79 billion of green bond issuances in 2015. It showed significant progress towards the end of the year, as over half of its annual deals (USD 2.0 billion) were generated in Q4.

Closely following, we have HSBC taking the third place in the annual league table, underwriting a total of USD 3.49 billion green bonds in 2015. Similar to CACIB, the bank made the most progress towards the second half of 2015, getting into the top 5 in Q3 and Q4 league tables. HSBC’s underwriting deals are almost 50:50 split between issuances by development banks and corporates (including banks), with about 3% is in municipal bonds.

JP Morgan came in forth with a total of USD 3.14 billion deals this year thanks to its outstanding performance in Q1 and Q3; it topped the quarterly league table in both quarters. One of the highlights is its lead management on the largest municipal bond of 2015, USD 942.8 million, by Central Puget Sound Transit.

Supported by its top 5 ranking in Q1-Q3, Citi is ranked as the fifth in the annual underwriter league table, underwriting a total of USD 3.02bn this year. Some of the highlights of its underwritten deals are the USD 1.25 billion bonds by Toyota, USD 1.25 billion by EDF, EUR 0.5 billion + USD 0.8 billion ($1.3bn) by ING Bank, USD 479 million by New York State Environmental Facilities, etc.

Understanding our league table:

All data includes only bonds labelled and marketed to investors as ‘green’ or ‘climate’, the primary definition of this market. This means that figures do not include renewable energy projects or other bonds linked to green projects but not labelled and marketed as such.

Exchange rates taken as the last price on the announcement date.

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