BRI has been entering the ESG bond market. The bank sets a plan in raising the ESG bond market. Previously in July, the bank purchased Rp5trn green bond debut. Due to the strong demand, they gained 4.4x. The state-owned bank also raised $500m in 2019 for five-year sustainability bonds. A Singapore-based loan syndication argued that BRI’s SLL is basically following its previous sustainability. The bank has recently poured its focus on this scenario. The banker added that hopefully more sustainability would be on the deals especially for the best reasons.
In Indonesia, BRI is basically among the fewer. Many green loans and SLLs do not actually boost a strong track record in borrowings in the block. In previous months for instance, a subsidiary of privately owned Indonesian palm oil producer, Inti Indosawit Subur Indonesia raised SLL debut. The total comprised $120m SLL with three lenders in the syndication. Reflecting from 2019, the South-East Asia biggest economy argued that there were only $2.46bn seven green loans and SLLs. This was from the total of $1.21bn from the three-closed transactions.
However, Asia Pacific has maintained as much as $71bn green loans as well as SLLs year to date. This is based on Refinitiv LPC data. Based on the latest report, both green loans and SLLs from Indonesia jumped to $6.6bn including BRI. The reason is the borrowings emerged in the second half attracting favorable loan market conditions. This is in face of liquidity challenges and bad market situations. According to bankers, Indonesian borrowers flocked to offshore to raise loans. It even happened just before the presidential and general elections scheduled for February 2024.
