Adif Alta Velocidad (Adif AV) has issued EUR 500 million in green bonds, aimed at financing or refinancing rail projects that deliver environmental or climate-related benefits.
The bond has a maturity of seven years, with an annual coupon payment of 3.125%. Compared to the initial guidance of +43 basis points, the transaction closed with a tightening of the spread to +37 basis points over the Treasury. This marks the lowest spread achieved by the company in the past four years.
The issuance was 6.6 times oversubscribed, making it the second most oversubscribed bond in the company’s history, with a total demand of EUR 3.3 billion across 98 orders. As with recent issuances, there was a strong geographical diversification of investors, with 85% coming from outside Spain: 20% from France, 16% from Germany, 14% from the Benelux region, 12% from the United Kingdom, 10% from the Nordic countries, 7% from Portugal, and 6% from Italy.
Adif AV has also deepened its sustainable financing strategy by signing sustainability-linked loans with three financial institutions, totalling EUR 500 million.
The financial conditions of these loans are tied to an environmental indicator, specifically, CO₂ emissions savings (in tonnes) from Adif AV’s rail lines, both high-speed and conventional. This indicator will be verified by an independent third party.
Furthermore, Adif AV has committed to achieving a reduction of more than 2 million tonnes of CO₂ by the year 2028. If this target is not met, a penalty will be applied to the interest rate of the signed sustainable loans.
This issuance of green bonds is the ninth of its kind carried out by Adif AV since 2017, consolidating its position as a leading player in the domestic market, with a total of EUR 5.1 billion issued. It also reinforces its status as one of the most active ‘green’ issuers in the European high-speed rail infrastructure sector. In 2024, Adif AV was ranked first in the transport infrastructure sector for ESG performance by Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Rating, based on an analysis of 171 entities, and placed fourth globally among nearly 15,000 companies assessed.
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