The bank's first sustainable finance transaction in the country is also the first green loan in South Korea supporting the property sector.
OCBC Bank has provided its first green loan in South Korea for 115 billion won ($97 million) to M&G Real Estate Asia, which will be used to refinance an investment in Northgate, a green office building in Seoul’s Central Business District.
The Northgate investment was made through the M&G Asia Property Fund, an institutional core open-ended real estate fund investing in high-quality real estate assets across the Asia Pacific region.
«We hope that this will continue to spur developments in sustainable financing across industries and real estate asset classes in the region,» Elaine Lam, OCBC's head of global corporate banking, said about the landmark loan.
Sustainable Loans Grow
OCBC recently committed to increase its sustainable finance target to S$25 billion ($17.9 billion) by 2025, after reaching its previous goal of S$10 billion ($7.2 billion) by 2022 two years ahead of plan.
So far this year, OCBC has participated in more than 20 green and sustainability-linked loans, including renewable energy projects such as solar, onshore wind and offshore wind projects in markets like Taiwan, China, the United Kingdom, Australia and Malaysia.
