Bond spotlight

Enbridge oil sands SLB - participation trophy alert

Written by Ulf Erlandsson

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Here, we conduct a deal review of a potential forthcoming sustainability linked bond (SLB) from one of the key oil sands players in the world. We are underwhelmed by some of the specific metrics, and shocked of the audacity in general.

The SLB in question comes from one of the key companies in the oil sand industry – Enbridge – which is planning to hold an investor call with regards to the potential issuance. On the face of it, this potential issuance could seem like a step towards a part energy transition for Enbridge.

However, we believe that it does not represent such a move. Enbridge is a company that features on a fair number of investor exclusions lists, due to its high involvement in oil sands. The company is also known from recent protests in the US with regards to the construction of pipelines.

Furthermore, the documentation for Enbridge’s SLB does not mention, at any time, “oil sands”. The second opinion on the bond mentions it once. And this is perhaps important as a pointer to the robustness of the three performance metrics for the SLB.

About the author

Ulf Erlandsson

Ulf Erlandsson

Founder, Board member

Dr Ulf Erlandsson founded the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute and was its first CEO. A pioneer of climate-focused fixed income portfolio management, he was named Environmental Finance’s Bond Personality of the Year 2022.

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