Successful international issue of Triodos Bank shares
24 July 2007 – Triodos Bank’s international issue of depository receipts for shares has closed successfully. The bank issued more than one million of new shares and increased its equity by 67 million euros (54%), against a target of 30 million euros. The bank’s equity now totals over 190 million euro.
43% of the new money has been invested by private investors and 57% by institutional investors. More than 5.200 private investors subscribed, including 3.000 new depository receipt holders. Triodos Bank now has 12,000 depository receipt holders.
Institutional investors with a stake of more than 5% include ABP (General Pension Fund for Public Employees) and PGGM (Pension Fund for Employees in Health, Welfare and Social Institutions), Rabobank, Friesland Bank and insurer Delta Lloyd. Their involvement underlines the growing importance that organisations like this attach to the progressive work of Triodos Bank.
The issue was launched to support the bank’s continuing growth. Triodos Bank and the funds under its management have grown by 22%, on average, over the past five years. The shareholders’ capital needs to be strengthened to make sure that its lending operations to sustainable enterprises and projects can continue to grow. The capital is also needed to support expansion of its lending operations in 2008 in Germany. The campaign took place in The Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Spain.
Triodos Bank uses financial products and services to build a healthier society and improve quality of life across the community. To do it, the bank finances enterprises and projects in organic farming, renewable energy, healthcare, social economics, culture and fair trade.
Triodos Bank's balance sheet total rose substantially during 2006, by 26%, to EUR 1.5 billion. The funds entrusted to the Triodos Bank Group, comprising Triodos Bank and the funds under its management, increased in 2006, by 23%, to EUR 3 billion.
Chief Executive Peter Blom: “The issues we’ve worked with for more than 25 years, like climate change and microcredit, are now at the top of the popular agenda. People want words to be converted into action - they want to make a positive choice. The interest in this issue was much higher than we expected, making this our most successful capital raising exercise ever. The fact that so many private investors have subscribed is particularly satisfying. It allows us to serve numerous sustainable companies looking for funds to develop, and will help us realise our own growth ambitions over the coming years. And we can do it with the support of a strong shareholder base made up of people and institutions that share our interest in positive social, environmental and cultural change.”
“Share ownership is far too often reduced to an opportunistic and anonymous involvement in a stock exchange-quoted enterprise and its expected growth in share value. There’s rarely any interest in the enterprise itself. Triodos Bank, however, has found shareholders who consider this to be too limited a view of what share ownership is all about - shareholders who literally wish to give more significance to their investment. Triodos Bank shareholders believe in balanced growth over the long term. A healthy balance between people, planet and profit now and in the future,” said Peter Blom.
ABP:
Roderick Munsters, Managing Director of Capital Management of ABP: “We have significantly increased our interest in Triodos Bank for different reasons. Triodos Bank is a successful sustainable bank and it has ambitions to go even further. This means that there are sound prospects for a good return on our investment. In addition, there is common ground between the sustainability policy of ABP and the activities of Triodos Bank that offers interesting opportunities for ABP to build the relationship further. To conclude: Triodos Bank wishes to improve the quality of life of everybody. Our participants and pensioners profit from this too.”
PGGM:
Else Bos, PGGM Investments CEO: “We have increased our interest in Triodos Bank to ensure that sustainable banking is possible on a larger scale. It fits with our conviction that financial and social returns go together in the long term. And it strengthens the existing partnership and expands it, on the strength of shared basic principles.”
Friesland Bank:
“Friesland Bank and Triodos Bank have a lot in common”, said Anne Vlaskamp, member of the board of directors. "This is why we have had a good relationship for so long. We explicitly say in our mission that we want to do everything possible to ensure our clients make sound choices. And sound choices also applies to the bank itself. Our interest in Triodos Bank fits in seamlessly with our strategic approach within this context. We believe we are a natural match. It should, therefore, go without saying that we would want to contribute to the further expansion of Triodos Bank.”
Rabobank:
“I believe that the size of the success of Triodos Bank’s depository receipt issue is evidence that there is still an increasing interest in investing in ‘sustainable banking’. Partly due to this, we at Rabobank were again more than happy to subscribe to ensure that our interest in Triodos Bank would stay above 5%. After all, ‘sustainable banking’ has also become part of our ethos", said Bart Jan Krouwel, Socially Responsible Entrepreneurship Managing Director of Rabobank Nederland (and co-founder and first Chief Executive of Triodos Bank in 1980).
Delta Lloyd:
Alex Otto, Delta Lloyd Asset Management’s Investments Managing Director: “We have invested in Triodos Bank since the 1980s. We have given shape to sustainable investing together with Triodos Bank. We wish to continue and strengthen this partnership by ensuring our stake in the bank’s shares is kept at a certain level.”
Rapid development
By increasing its shareholders' equity Triodos Bank aims to underpin its rapid development and maintain the best solvency level possible. It wants to achieve fair and stable returns for depository receipt holders. In the medium term, the bank plans to increase shareholder equity returns from the current 5%, to 7%, by scaling up and improving efficiency. In particular, it expects that a relatively new branch in Spain (2004) and a planned office in Germany (2008) will contribute to the bank's profits within a few years.
Triodos Bank also expects further growth in its existing and new Triodos investment funds - funds that invest in sustainable sectors and contribute directly to the bank's mission. It also plans to expand its range of sustainable products and services, including debit and credit cards, mortgages and Private Banking, anticipating a 20% growth in its activities during 2007.
Sustainable banking
Triodos Bank is an independent bank that advocates and embodies sustainable and transparent banking. Established in The Netherlands in 1980, it believes that rather than exploiting people and the environment for short-term financial gain, they can complement each other, creating wider, lasting benefits.
Triodos Bank helped to pioneer successful tax incentive schemes for green, social and cultural projects. It launched The Netherlands' first green and culture funds and is a leading authority on microfinance in developing countries, including the Triodos Fair Share Fund.
Triodos Bank has 125,000 customers and 4,000 loans to sustainable enterprises and projects. The bank has offices in The Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Spain, and an agency in Germany. It employs 350 people.
Not listed on the stock exchange
Triodos Bank regularly runs share issue campaigns. Prior to this one, the most recent was in 2005, successfully increasing the bank's capital by EUR 20 million. Triodos Bank depository receipts are not listed on the stock exchange, but can be traded through Triodos Bank itself. When the bank was established, it chose to issue depository receipts for shares, rather than conventional ones, to guarantee its independence and mission.
Triodos Bank N.V. has a full banking licence and is registered with The Nederlandsche Bank N.V. and The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets.
EXACT NUMBER OF ISSUED DEPOSITORY RECEIPTS
16 January 2008 - The exact number of depository receipts that have been issued as of 2 January 2008 is 1,078,337.
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