Sustainability plays a fundamental role in ORLEN’s path to building a multi-utility group and the ORLEN2030 business strategy. Our sustainable development strategy gives priority to the achievement of the ambitious goals outlined in the Paris Agreement, the 2030 UN Agenda and the European Green Deal. We consider climate-related challenges as new business opportunities. We have made a clear declaration that the ORLEN Group is and will remain a leader of energy transition in Central Europe. The actions we have planned to take will enable us to grow sustainably as a modern, low-carbon and resource-efficient business organisation.
ORLEN aims to regularly issue green bonds, using its corporate mechanisms to promote and deliver ESG objectives.
Green Finance Framework
To ensure the possibility to issue Green Eurobonds, ORLEN has developed and published the Green Finance Framework, laying down the principles for green and sustainable financing. The document defines the objectives of green financing and the types of investments to be financed from the Eurobond issue proceeds, i.e. the development of renewable energy sources, clean transport and countering environmental pollution, also by means of recycling. The pursuit of these goals, both in terms of deployment of issue proceeds and their environmental impact, is subject to periodic (at least annual) review by an independent auditor and reported by ORLEN, until the Green Bonds redemption.
Climate Bonds Certification
ORLEN has been awarded the Climate Bonds Standard certification for its future clean transport infrastructure projects. Climate Bonds Certification demonstrates compliance with best practice standards in climate integrity, management of proceeds and transparency. The assets awarded the certificate are aligned with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below 2°C and achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
This benchmark issue of seven-year green Eurobonds, blazing a trail not only for ORLEN but the entire Polish market, attracted huge investor interest. As many as 234 subscriptions for a total amount of nearly EUR 3bn were made during the book-building process. This means that ORLEN’s Green Bonds were six times oversubscribed relative to the issue size. 5,000 Eurobonds were allotted to 182 investors from 26 countries, As much as 62% of the bonds were subscribed by funds investing mainly in green assets.
First sustainability-linked (ESG) bond issue in Poland
In December 2020, ORLEN issued 10,000 ESG-linked bonds with a total value of PLN 1bn and a margin of 90 basis points per annum in the first interest period as the first issuer in Poland. The margin in subsequent interest periods depends on the company’s ESG rating from MSCI ESG Research Limited. The bond issue attracted strong interest from investors – in the bookbuilding process they placed subscription orders for PLN 2.2bn worth of bonds, more than twice their total nominal value. ORLEN has secured very good terms of financing – the interest rate is the lowest in its operating history and the margin is the lowest since the 2008 financial crisis.