DBS Bank was chosen by the independent panel of judges to win the prestigious IJGlobal ESG Excellence Award for the Asia Pacific region.

They were won over by the bank’s efforts in recent times to build a dedicated team of originators, transaction management personnel, sales personnel and traders in Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, London, Indonesia and India who focus on global distribution for Asian debt issues.

The DBS ESG advisory team works closely with issuers on the process and tools required to execute sustainable finance transactions. Its support includes helping issuers to develop sustainable financing framework, advising issuers on prevailing and emerging stakeholder views as well as ESG rating and managing the process in seeking external assurance/certification etc.

A primary reason for winning this award was DBS acting as the sole bookrunner for the National Environment Agency on the first SGD denominated green bond and largest inaugural issuance by a statutory board. This involved a SGD350 million ($244m), 1.67% 10-year green notes and SGD1.3 billion 2.50% 30-year green notes – which was also the longest tenor green bonds denominated in SGD to date.

DBS was also a bookrunner for Nanyang Technological University on the world’s first publicly offered sustainability-linked bond by a university. This involved a SGD650 million, 2.185% sustainability-linked bond due 2036. It was the inaugural debt issuance by NTU, and the longest dated sustainability-linked bond in Asia Pacific to date.

The bank also acted as a joint lead manager and bookrunner for Sembcorp Industries on the issuer’s maiden sustainability-linked bond issuance following the establishment of its sustainable finance framework in August 2021. This was a SGD675 million 2.66% 10.5-year sustainability-linked bonds due 2032 and it was the first sustainability-linked bond for the energy sector in Southeast Asia. The transaction was anchored by the International Finance Corporation and marked the IFC’s first investment globally as an SLB investor.

According to the DBS submission: “Our sales and syndicate team has wide-ranging access to a plethora of fund management companies, ranging from well-known investment funds to low-profile and well-backed private equity investors.

“We have an in-depth understanding of the requirements of the investors and can effectively communicate our clients’ investment stories to investors. In both primary and secondary markets, DBS, with its ability to reach a wide network of customers throughout the region, is able to provide critical distribution capabilities over and above providing market liquidity, which allows issuers to access a broad spectrum of investors.

“DBS has been at the forefront of numerous ground-breaking transactions, a reflection of our established know-how in product structuring and our track record of linking Asian investors with issuers.”

Picture added after IJGlobal ESG Awards 2022 (left-to-right): IJGlobal head of content Ila Patel; Edward Clothier from DBS Bank; IJGlobal content director Angus Leslie Melville.