Dentons has advised a syndicate of banks including joint bookrunners Citi, Deutsche Bank, Erste Group, and SMBC Nikko and co-lead manager Raiffeisen Bank International on the EUR 600 million debut sustainability-linked bond issuance by CEZ. Kinstellar and, reportedly, Linklaters advised CEZ on the issuance.
According to Dentons, the “2.375% bonds are due in 2027. This was the first-ever euro sustainability-linked bond issuance by an investment-grade utility company in central and eastern Europe. Dentons acted as English law and Czech law counsel.”
The CEZ Group operates in western, central, and south-eastern Europe and focuses on the generation, distribution, trading, and sale of electricity and heat; trading and sale of natural gas; provision of energy services from the new energy sector; and coal mining.
According to Dentons, “the use of proceeds of the bond issue is general corporate purposes but CEZ undertakes that proceeds will not be used for coal power generation projects. The key performance indicator for the bond is CEZ reducing greenhouse gas intensity by 31% at the end of 2025 compared with 2019. The bonds were well received by the market, with books exceeding EUR 3.1 billion from over 200 individual orders.”
Dentons’ team included Prague-based Partners Jiri Tomola and Petr Zakoucky and Senior Associates Jan Hrivnak and Ivo Hartmann, with a further team in London.
Kinstellar’s team included Partners Kamil Blazek and Kvetoslav Krejci, Counsel Martina Brezinova, Managing Associate Michal Forytek, and Associate Jakub Stastny.
