Latest news with #GreenFinance
National Post
3 days ago
- Business
- National Post
Primaris REIT Publishes Inaugural Green Finance Framework
Article content TORONTO — Primaris Real Estate Investment Trust ('Primaris') (TSX: announced today that it has published its inaugural Green Finance Framework (the 'Framework'), under which it may issue green bonds, green loans or other related financial instruments. The framework outlines eight eligible categories for investment: green buildings, energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable water and wastewater management, clean transportation, climate change adaptation, pollution prevention and control, and the circular economy. Article content 'As a Board member and Chair of the Compensation, Governance, and Nominating Committee, I'm pleased to support the introduction of our Green Finance Framework,' said Anne Fitzgerald, Trustee. 'It's a practical step that aligns with our broader sustainability strategy and helps ensure we're investing in projects that support environmental progress in a thoughtful, responsible way.' Article content Rags Davloor, Chief Financial Officer added, 'Today marks a significant step forward in our commitment to sustainability. With the publication of our Green Finance Framework, we are aligning our environmental goals and targets with business strategy. Proceeds from green financing will support our focus on emissions reduction, building certifications, energy and water management, and tenant sustainability impacts, while creating long-term value for our stakeholders.' Article content The Framework has been reviewed by Moody's Ratings, which issued a Second Party Opinion confirming the Framework's alignment to the International Capital Market Association Green Bond Principles (2021) and the Loan Market Association Green Loan Principles (2025). Article content Primaris will report annually on the allocation and impact of financed projects under the Framework on its website, and/or in its corporate reporting. The Framework and Second Party Opinion are available on the ESG section of the Primaris website. Article content Scotiabank acted as sole sustainability structuring agent on the Framework. Article content About Primaris Real Estate Investment Trust Article content Primaris is Canada's only enclosed shopping centre focused REIT, with ownership interests in leading enclosed shopping centres located in growing Canadian markets. The current portfolio totals 15.0 million square feet, valued at approximately $4.9 billion at Primaris' share. Economies of scale are achieved through its fully internal, vertically integrated, full-service national management platform. Primaris is very well-capitalized and is exceptionally well positioned to take advantage of market opportunities at an extraordinary moment in the evolution of the Canadian retail property landscape. Article content Forward-Looking Statements Article content Certain statements included in this news release constitute 'forward-looking information' or 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The words 'will', 'expects', 'plans', 'estimates', 'intends' and similar expressions are often intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Specific forward-looking statements made or implied in this news release include but are not limited to statements regarding: Primaris' intention and ability to complete an offering of green bonds, green loans or other related financial instruments, Primaris' expected investment in the eligible categories outlined herein and the expected sufficiency of proceeds from any such offering to fund these investments and to create long-term value for stakeholders. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of presenting information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are based on estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties. Primaris cautions that although it is believed that the assumptions are reasonable in the circumstances, actual results, performance or achievements of Primaris may differ materially from the expectations set out in the forward-looking statements. Material risk factors and assumptions include those set out in Primaris' management's discussion and analysis for the three months and years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, which is available on SEDAR+, and in Primaris' other materials filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities from time to time. Given these risks, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements, which apply only as of their dates. Other than as specifically required by law, Primaris undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent or otherwise. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content Alex Avery Chief Executive Officer 416-642-7837 aavery@ Article content Rags Davloor Chief Financial Officer 416-645-3716 rdavloor@
Zawya
27-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank issues price guidance for $600mln 5-year Formosa
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) has launched a $600 million five-year Formosa bond, with a final price guidance of 100 basis points above the secured overnight financing rate (SOFR), with a coupon paid quarterly in arrear. The Regulation S senior unsecured notes are rated A+ Stable (S&P) / A+ Stable (Fitch), in line with the lender's rating. The issuance will come under the UAE's bank's $15 billion Global Medium Term Note Programme. ADCB said an amount equal to the net proceeds from each issue will be used for the general financing purposes, or in respect of any Green Notes, to finance or refinance eligible green loans. HSBC Bank (Taiwan) and Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan) have been appointed joint managers. The Formosa bond, which implies a debt instrument issued in Taiwan, will be listed on the Taipei Exchange and Euronext Dublin. In February, ADCB raised $600 million through a five-year floating-rate Formosa bond, priced at a spread of 105bps above the SOFR. (Writing by Bindu Rai, editing by Brinda Darasha)
E&E News
23-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
EPA's challenges grow in quest to claw back ‘gold bars'
The Trump administration's bid to take back billions of dollars in green finance grants hasn't made much progress. The money is still sitting in Citibank accounts under the names of the eight nonprofits the Biden administration chose for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants. Internal emails between government lawyers — obtained by POLITICO last month — show that several raised doubts about EPA's case for withholding those funds from recipients. And EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin's claims of fraud are being contradicted by the Justice Department lawyers defending the agency in court. Advertisement But on Tuesday, Zeldin continued to insist that EPA's decision to terminate the awards is justified by evidence of malfeasance. 'One thing that we have zero tolerance for, is that there will be zero waste and abuse of even a penny of your constituents' tax dollars,' he said during a Tuesday hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. EPA announced it would terminate the awards March 12, pointing to 'well-documented incidents of misconduct, conflicts of interest, and potential fraud.' Two months later, the Trump administration has yet to publicly disclose any concrete charges of fraud or wrongdoing either by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund recipients or the Biden officials who designed the program. Last week, The New York Times reported that a probe into the grant program — initiated by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia — may have shut down after finding no evidence of criminality. Zeldin often goes on the offensive when asked to provide evidence of fraud. He cites a surreptitiously recorded video of a former Biden official describing the late-term rush to obligate climate law funds as 'throwing gold bars' from the Titanic, the fact that several of the program's awardees have former Democratic officials on their staff or board, and the relative newness of some of the nonprofits launched to run the new lending facility. At the House budget hearing Tuesday, he complained that Rep. Nanette Díaz Barragán (D-Calif.) prevented him from listing all those data points in response to her question about the grant terminations. 'I guess the other side of the aisle doesn't want me to go into any real list,' he told Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.). 'One, two, three, four, I mean, how much time do you have? Because if you want to yield a full 20 minutes, I'm happy to go through all of the specifics.' At a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing a day later, Zeldin got into a heated argument with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the committee's ranking member. Whitehouse accused EPA of not meeting the requirements of its own grantmaking regulations — and lying about individually reviewing every canceled grant. Zeldin hit back at Whitehouse, accusing him of trying to force EPA to light 'taxpayer dollars on fire.' 'The American taxpayers, they put President [Donald] Trump in office because of people like you,' he said. What EPA's lawyers say EPA first froze the $20 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants in April, declaring them terminated a few weeks later. Most grantees are now suing EPA and Citibank to regain access to their funds, which the Biden administration awarded to finance a transition to electrification and renewable energy. EPA's first district court filing on the case — which was penned by EPA chief of staff Eric Amidon — asserted evidence of misconduct and fraud. But Department of Justice attorneys have not made allegations of waste or fraud central to the defense of EPA's case. 'To be clear, we're not accusing anybody of fraud,' Yaakov Roth, an acting assistant attorney general, said at a Monday hearing before a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit panel. 'I don't want to suggest otherwise.' DOJ attorney Marc Sacks, who argued the case in April before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, focused on the inherent right he said new administrations had to cancel grants that didn't align with their policy objectives. But last month, District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan issued an injunction that would allow grantees — mostly community lenders and green energy nonprofits — to withdraw funds under their contracts while litigation continues. An appeals court has temporarily stayed that injunction. The appeals panel, which is made up of one Obama appointee and two Trump appointees, is expected to decide shortly whether it will lift that stay. Roth, who represented EPA at the appellate court this week, has focused on a different argument than Sacks. EPA, he told the court, was forced to terminate the grants because the arrangement with Citibank didn't give the agency the 'tools and oversight' it needed to scrutinize spending by the program's subawardees — the businesses and individuals that the primary award recipients invest in or lend to. When Judge Nina Pillard, an Obama appointee, asked whether EPA could have instead modified the contract to provide better visibility, Roth said that was beside the point. 'It may be that this could have been modified and that the issues could have been addressed by modification rather than termination,' he conceded. 'I don't really know the answer to that, but I'm not sure it matters for purposes of either this court's review or the claims court's review. 'The question isn't going to be the reasonableness of the concerns, it's going to be how much leeway did EPA have under the contract to make these kinds of decisions,' he said. A former EPA official granted anonymity because he feared retribution said the grant terms would have allowed EPA to seek amendments to the award contracts without terminating the grants. But he said the arrangement with Citibank was already designed to be transparent and to provide EPA with the ability to conduct oversight — including over subawardees. Roth was one of several senior government attorneys to express concern about EPA's decision to freeze the grant awards in a March email chain obtained by POLITICO. Days before EPA formally terminated the grants, Roth warned that the courts could ultimately award the eight grantees the balance of their original awards — plus damages and interest — if they ruled the freeze was unlawful. The government's immediate focus, he wrote at the time, should be on 'short-term objectives,' including keeping money from going out the door before investigations are concluded. On Wednesday, Zeldin told the Senate environment panel that $3 billion in program funds has already been spent. New awards? Roth said on Monday that if the courts allow the government to recover the funds, EPA would relaunch the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund with new safeguards and select new recipients. 'This is not some sort of frontal assault on the appropriation or Congress' objective,' he told the appeals panel. 'The problem that EPA has is with these contracts, not with the statute.' That means Zeldin, who is expected to soon release a finding that greenhouse gas emissions don't endanger the public, would oversee a $20 billion program devoted to slashing those pollutants. Sam Bagenstos, the top lawyer for former President Joe Biden's Office of Management and Budget, argued in an amicus brief filedthis week that 'whether or not the EPA truly intends to reobligate the money to new grantees, it cannot lawfully do so.' In the 2022 climate law, Congress gave EPA a deadline of Sept. 30, 2024, to obligate all grants under the green lending program before its authorization expired. EPA met that deadline. While some appropriated funds would remain available for five years to cover expenses associated with the program, 'what they can't do is make a new grant to someone new,' said Bagenstos, who is now a professor at the University of Michigan. In his brief in support of the awardees, Bagenstos said it was an 'elementary principle' of appropriations law that an agency was not permitted to enter into new funding obligations once the appropriation has expired. The former EPA official disagreed with that, saying that in some cases agencies can reopen grant competitions after a program has expired if the original grant competition was flawed in some way. Bagenstos and other experts said that if the courts permitted EPA to claw the funds back, it would just flow back into the Treasury rather than going to finance new grants. If that happens, they said, the Trump administration and its GOP allies in Congress probably couldn't use those savings as a 'pay for' to offset the tax cuts and defense and immigration enforcement spending in their megabill. The package is estimated to add trillions of dollars to the national debt, and Republicans are searching for spending cuts to narrow that gap. The current bill before the House would slash climate law programs — including an unspent $19 million to administer the green lending fund — and other spending for health and social services. 'Just clawing the money back administratively actually means that they wouldn't be able to get the benefit of that in [Congressional Budget Office] scoring, because it would be the administration doing it, not Congress in this bill,' said Bagenstos.
Zawya
08-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
EMSTEEL launches green finance framework to accelerate sustainable growth
EMSTEEL today announced the launch of its first Green Finance Framework, an initiative that marks a pivotal step in aligning the Group's financial strategy with its long-term sustainability and decarbonisation goals, positioning EMSTEEL at the forefront of sustainable finance in the region. The Framework enables EMSTEEL and its subsidiaries to issue a variety of green finance instruments-including green bonds, loans, commercial papers, and medium-term notes (MTNs)-across multiple currencies. Proceeds will be exclusively allocated to finance or refinance eligible green projects that meet stringent environmental criteria. These projects include low-carbon steel and cement production, renewable energy installations such as solar photovoltaic systems, energy-efficient technologies, and innovations driving decarbonisation. Commenting on the launch, Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi, Group CEO of EMSTEEL, stated, 'Our Green Finance Framework is more than a financial tool – it is a strategic lever to accelerate our transition towards a low-carbon future. It reflects our commitment to aligning our fund raising activities with internationally recognised market standards for green financing and channelling funds toward environmentally responsible projects. Through this initiative, we aim to support the decarbonisation of our operations, foster innovation in low-carbon steelmaking and create long-term value for our shareholders, society, and the planet.' Mark Tonkens, Group Chief Financial Officer, said, 'The launch of our Green Finance Framework marks a pivotal step in reinforcing EMSTEEL's commitment to sustainability. Aligning our financial strategy with global green finance standards enables us to secure funding for high-impact projects and positions us as a leader in the region's transition to a low-carbon economy." Developed in accordance with internationally recognised best practices, the Framework ensures a robust and transparent approach to the issuance, management, and reporting of green finance instruments. Moody's Ratings has provided a Second Party Opinion (SPO), awarding the Framework a Sustainability Quality Score of SQS2 (Very Good), enhancing investor confidence in EMSTEEL's sustainability-focused capital strategy. The Framework's development was supported by key partners, including ING as Lead Sustainability Structuring Bank and First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) as Sustainability Structuring Bank, highlighting strong regional collaboration in advancing sustainable finance, highlightin
Zawya
08-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
EMSTEEL launches green finance framework to accelerate sustainable growth and advance net zero ambitions
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: EMSTEEL (ADX: EMSTEEL) ('the Group'), one of the largest publicly traded steel and building materials manufacturers in the region, today announced the launch of its first Green Finance Framework. This initiative marks a pivotal step in aligning the Group's financial strategy with its long-term sustainability and decarbonisation goals, positioning EMSTEEL at the forefront of sustainable finance in the region. The Framework enables EMSTEEL and its subsidiaries to issue a variety of green finance instruments-including green bonds, loans, commercial papers, and medium-term notes (MTNs)-across multiple currencies. Proceeds will be exclusively allocated to finance or refinance eligible green projects that meet stringent environmental criteria. These projects include low-carbon steel and cement production, renewable energy installations such as solar photovoltaic systems, energy-efficient technologies, and innovations driving decarbonisation. Commenting on the launch, Engineer Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi, Group CEO of EMSTEEL, stated, 'Our Green Finance Framework is more than a financial tool – it is a strategic lever to accelerate our transition towards a low-carbon future. It reflects our commitment to aligning our fund raising activities with internationally recognised market standards for green financing and channelling funds toward environmentally responsible projects. Through this initiative, we aim to support the decarbonisation of our operations, foster innovation in low-carbon steelmaking and create long-term value for our shareholders, society, and the planet.' Mark Tonkens, Group Chief Financial Officer, said: 'The launch of our Green Finance Framework marks a pivotal step in reinforcing EMSTEEL's commitment to sustainability. Aligning our financial strategy with global green finance standards enables us to secure funding for high-impact projects and positions us as a leader in the region's transition to a low-carbon economy." Developed in accordance with internationally recognised best practices, the Framework ensures a robust and transparent approach to the issuance, management, and reporting of green finance instruments. Moody's Ratings has provided a Second Party Opinion (SPO), awarding the Framework a Sustainability Quality Score of SQS2 (Very Good), enhancing investor confidence in EMSTEEL's sustainability-focused capital strategy. The Framework's development was supported by key partners, including ING as Lead Sustainability Structuring Bank and First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) as Sustainability Structuring Bank, highlighting strong regional collaboration in advancing sustainable finance, highlighting strong regional collaboration in advancing sustainable finance. The Green Finance Framework is a cornerstone of EMSTEEL's broader Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy. It supports ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% in steel production and 30% in cement production by 2030. About EMSTEEL EMSTEEL is a public joint stock company (ADX: EMSTEEL) and the UAE's largest steel and building materials manufacturer. The Group leverages cutting-edge technologies to supply both the local market and over 70 international markets with high-quality finished products, creating a one-stop shop for the manufacturing and construction sectors. EMSTEEL is committed to contributing to the UAE's industrial strategy 'Operation 300 billion' by delivering market-leading products to support local industries, creating job opportunities for UAE Nationals, and enhancing its sustainable practices. The Group is a global leader in low-carbon steel production and is aligned with the UAE's Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative. Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, EMSTEEL operates 16 state-of-the-art plants, with a production capacity of 3.5 million tonnes of steel and 4.6 million tonnes of cement annually, fueling the nation's most iconic projects. EMSTEEL is majority owned by ADQ, one of the region's largest holding companies with a broad portfolio of major enterprises spanning key sectors of Abu Dhabi's diversified economy.
