Veolia Marks Eurobond First

Veolia, the partly state-owned French firm with interests ranging from decommissioning yards for oil and gas platforms to waste recycling, has issued a bond with a negative yield.

The €500mn ($590mn), three-year eurobond (which matures November 2020) has a negative yield of -0.026 %, which is a first for a BBB credit rated issuer, it said late November 16.

The transaction was very positively welcomed by the investors and four times oversubscribed, it said. It means bondholders will get back in 2020 less than the original capital invested.

The company said the high level of oversubscription, the quality of the investor base and the outstanding conditions that were achieved are signals of the significant appreciation of Veolia’s credit quality. Proceeds of the bond will be used for general corporate purposes, it said. 

Among other assets, Veolia jointly with Dutch firm Petersen owns a platform decommissioning facility in Great Yarmouth (shown in photo above). Their yard received its first offshore for decommisioning on July 11, when the Shell Leman BH gas platform's accommodation block (or topside) arrived there.

Mark Smedley