10x Oversubscription Indicates High Demand for Impact Investing
The Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) is excited to announce its first public debt offering with a $100 million Sustainability Bond issuance. This successful transaction, which was ten times oversubscribed, demonstrates confidence in LIIF’s financial strength, high impact and excellent team. The issuance enables LIIF to grow its impact by ensuring that it can continue to deliver flexible, affordable capital to its mission-driven borrowers across the country.
This issuance is the first bond from a Community Development Financial institution (CDFI) to receive a second-party opinion validating it as a Sustainable Bond. The opinion by Sustainalytics is based on LIIF’s Sustainability Bond Framework, which supports investments in projects that link environmental sustainability with social impact. This is also the first public offering to align directly with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
“For 35 years, LIIF’s investments have been creating better places for families to live, work and thrive. We’ve invested more than $2.5 billion and leveraged over $12 billion of private capital to serve more than 2 million people in 31 states,” said LIIF CEO Daniel A. Nissenbaum. “This issuance represents a significant milestone for LIIF in accessing the capital markets. It broadens our investor base, helps manage interest rate risk and will enable LIIF to finance more critical community serving projects. It is also a powerful signal that the market understands the social and financial returns that CDFIs, like LIIF, provide to our investors and the communities we serve.”
This issuance, led by Morgan Stanley as senior manager with JP Morgan Securities as co-manager, is a continuation of LIIF’s relationship with both organizations, which have been long-time supporters of LIIF’s mission.
“Morgan Stanley is honored to have led LIIF’s inaugural $100 million public debt issuance, a transaction with over $1 billion in investor orders, including more than $345 million from sustainability-focused funds. This signals a new phase of public capital market acceptance and demand for CDFI bonds,” said Audrey Choi, CEO of the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing. “It marks the continuation of our long-standing partnership with the Low Income Investment Fund, and our firm-wide dedication to the CDFI sector at large.”
For more information, view the full announcement on the LIIF website and read recent media coverage in Barron’s.
