Societe Generale issued its first digital green bond as a security token directly registered by SG-FORGE on the Ethereum public blockchain with increased transparency and traceability on ESG data. Security tokens have been fully subscribed by two top tier institutional investors, AXA Investment Managers and Generali Investments, through a private placement.
This transaction is the first digital green bond issued by Societe Generale to leverage blockchain’s differentiating functionalities. This digital format enables increased transparency and traceability as well as improved fluidity and speed in transactions and settlements.
This inaugural operation is structured as a €10 million senior preferred unsecured bond with a maturity of 3 years. An amount equivalent to the net proceeds of this bond will be exclusively used to finance or refinance Eligible Green Activities, as defined in the Sustainable and Positive Impact Bond framework of Societe Generale. The Societe Generale group has been a recurrent issuer of Positive Impact Bonds since its inaugural issuance in the format in 2015.
This is also a first step towards using blockchain as a data repository and certification tool for issuers and investors to foster transparency on ESG and impact data on a global scale, and includes two key innovations which will be developed further:
- Information on the carbon footprint linked to the digital bond infrastructure is available 24/7 in open access directly in the bond’s smart contract. This enables issuers and investors to measure the carbon emissions of their securities on the financial infrastructure. This innovation is a new service granted by SG-FORGE and follows the publication of its first full lifecycle carbon footprint report on security tokens.
- A new option opened to investors to settle securities on-chain through the stablecoin EUR CoinVertible, the digital asset issued by SG-FORGE in April 2023, complementing traditional cash settlement solutions. While Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) solutions are being experimented, this panel of settlement methods demonstrates the large capabilities of SG-FORGE in providing full spectrum of on-chain services. In a related development, the Financial Times reported that SocGen will be trading EUR CoinVertible on Luxembourg-based exchange Bitstamp.