UniCredit launching Sustainable Finance Advisory Team

• Initiative to enhance strategic dialogue with clients around ESG-related topics
• Expansion comes as Bank sees increased demand for sustainable finance products

UniCredit has today announced the launch of a Sustainable Finance Advisory Team, a move that will see the Bank combine sustainability expertise with capital markets execution in order to deepen client dialogue around ESG-related topics and facilitate access to Europe’s green financing market.

The newly-created team will be headed by Antonio Keglevich, former Head of Sustainability Bond Origination and now Global Head of Sustainable Finance Advisory – his appointment is effective immediately and he will continue to be based in Munich, reporting to Goffredo Guizzardi and Christian Reusch, Co-Heads of Global Finance & Advisory.

Part of UniCredit Corporate & Investment Banking and fully-plugged in to the wider Group, UniCredit’s Sustainable Finance Advisory Team will advise clients on brown to green transition strategies whilst supporting the origination of ESG finance mandates with corporates, financials and SSAs across the entire value chain.

The team will work alongside UniCredit’s existing Equator Principles Advisory Team. In 2003, UniCredit was among the world’s first adopters of the ten principles that constitute the Equator Principles1[i]– a risk management framework for determining, assessing and managing environmental and social risk in projects. Since then, the Group has actively contributed to the framework’s development. Moving forward, both teams will work in alignment to define eligible project categories.

Commenting on the launch, Richard Burton, UniCredit’s Head of Corporate & Investment Banking, said: “In recent years, sustainable growth and how to achieve it has become a primary concern for investors, institutions and companies around the world. Banks have an increasingly important role to play in this conversation and today’s announcement highlights UniCredit’s ongoing efforts to deliver innovative solutions to our extensive client franchise”.

Antonio Keglevich, Global Head of Sustainable Finance Advisory, added: “The market for green bonds and loans is well on the way to setting an annual record for new issues due to positive investor pressure to increase sustainable financing and alleviate climate change. We are determined to meet this new class of borrowers and the establishment of this new team is a concrete step in doing so.”

UniCredit has over a decade of experience in green financing – acting as lead manager in the first ever green bond brought to the market in 2007 by the European Investment Bank.

In 2018, UniCredit acted as the joint bookrunner or joint arranger of 16 green and sustainable bond issues for a total placement of nearly 13 billion euros. On the loans side, the Bank played a leading role in seven sustainability-linked revolving credit facilities last year, participating in 11 transactions for a total of 18.7 billion euros.

[i]The EP apply globally to Project Finance Advisory Services, Project Finance, Project-Related Corporate Loans and Bridge Loans across all industry sectors.