ADB issues gender bonds in Canadian and Australian dollars

Gender inequality, which continues to cost the world millions of lives and trillions of dollars in lost opportunities, can be ended with adequate resources and appropriate financing. After taking into consideration this reality for women empowerment efforts , The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched back-to-back gender bonds with a CAD750 million (around USD596 million) 7-year bond in the Canadian dollar maple market and a AUD700 million (around USD542 million) 4.5-year bond in the Australian dollar kangaroo market.

The 7-year bond has a coupon of 1.5 per cent payable semi-annually and a maturity date of May 4, 2028. It was priced at 99.393 per cent to yield 39.3 basis points above the Canadian government bond due June 1, 2028. Joint lead managers are CIBC Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets, Scotiabank, and TD Securities.

The 4.5-year bond has a coupon of 0.8 per cent payable semi-annually and a maturity date of November 6, 2025. It was priced at 99.859 per cent to yield 21.95 basis points above the Australian government bond due November 21, 2025.

This is ADB's first issuance of gender bonds in both the maple and kangaroo markets, which will help support ADB projects that promote gender equality and women's leadership,". These efforts are even more imperative as we recognise that women and girls are among the groups most severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

ADB said it is committed to proactively supporting gender equality through gender-inclusive project designs in at least 75 per cent of its operations by 2030.

It has issued more than USD3.6 billion in thematic bonds across various themes including gender, health, and education in response to investor demand to support environment, social and governance goals.
ADB is a frequent borrower in the capital markets and plans to raise around USD34 billion to 36 billion in 2021.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on 9 February raised 8.4 billion Kazakhstan tenge (KZT) (about $20 million) from the first gender bond issued in Kazakhstan.

Proceeds of the bond will help finance the KZT38 billion Promoting Gender Equality in Housing Finance Project that aims to expand the lending operations of the Housing and Construction Savings Bank of Kazakhstan (Otbasy Bank) and promote affordable residential mortgage loans for women borrowers in largely rural areas. The ADB loan is the first external borrowing of Otbasy Bank and is guaranteed by the Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan.

Other efforts for gender bond :

On 6 February 2020, International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the Global Media Campaign Charity to End FGM (GMC) and global law firm White & Case LLP have come together to support the achievement of gender equality by using innovative financial tools.

Inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a finance initiative is being created to include innovative financing structures for sovereign bond issuances to finance the achievement of gender equality globally by 2030 with an initial focus on ending female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage in selected countries in Africa. The finance initiative is also exploring the creation of a global Women’s SDG Fund to invest in countries and companies that have entered into measurable gender equality commitments.

UN Women brings its expertise on how key investments in gender equality can have a long-term positive impact on the lives of women and girls and bring about economic growth that benefits the whole community. This aligns with UN Women’s commitment to the 2030 Agenda, in particular its commitment towards supporting the achievement of SDG 5 on gender equality and women’s empowerment.