Green bonds present a promising tool enabling investors in fixed-income mar- kets to finance environmental projects. Yet, the pricing of green bonds with respect to conventional bonds remains an open question. This thesis in- vestigates the existence of a yield differential between green and equivalent conventional bonds in the secondary market. By matching green bonds with synthetic conventional bonds and performing a fixed effects panel regression of the yield spread, we find evidence of a small negative premium associ- ated with green bonds ("green premium"): as a result of high demand from value-seeking investors, the yield of green bonds is on average 1.12 basis points lower than that of their conventional counterparts. The variation in the magnitude of the green premium with bond characteristics is further examined through a cross-sectional regression. We show that external ver- ification of the bond's green credentials and assurance on its post-issuance allocation report significantly increase the estimated green premium. Finally, the green bond's yield seems to decrease in case proceeds are used to finance new projects, while refinancing existing projects results in an increase in the bond's yield. Our findings provide valuable insights into the field of green bond pricing. While the...

Context:Over the years, India has evolved as a leading powerhouse of economic growthbut belongs to the nations that are most significantly affected by anthropogenicenviron-mental changes. As part of the Paris Agreement, India has formulated a national climate agenda, but a large gapprevalentin the green financialmarket as well as other deficien-cies in the general bondmarket and the underlying infrastructure restrain the country from attaining those goals. Purpose:Earlier scholarly works, and green bond reports, in particular, have foreground the number of green bond issuances in India but do not take a critical look at the stagnat-ing development of the market and have not scrutinised the market and its actors in the context of scientific frames of reference yet. Thus, this thesis aims to identify the chal-lenges India faces in scaling the green financial market up while taking the demands and potential contributions of stakeholder groups into consideration. Methodology:This thesis is grounded in the author’s assumptions of interpretivism and subjectivity. Following these initial considerations, an inductive approach was followed, and a qualitative study was conducted, mainly based on a literature review in areas like sustainable finance,green financialmarkets and theirparticipantsas well asgreen debt securities and the associated issuers, investors, costsandverificationmethodsin India. Findings:The main challenges India faces in developing the green financial market fur-ther are the missing transparency provoked by the fragmentary green bond regulation as to disclosure and verification requirements as well as illiquidity caused by a small number of and little environmental awareness among investors. The market relies heavily on the banking sector and green investment projects are slanted towards renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Moreover, green debt securities lack clear pricing advantages compared to conventional bonds but bear risks for greenwashing activities. Research Limitations:This thesis was not able to bridge the research gap on challenges for scaling India’s sustainable financial market up. The examination was further initiated by the author’s experiences with the topicand is based on an interpretive approach, thus, argumentations and findingsmight be value-laden. The small sample size of interviews taken and the limited information on greenwashing within financial activities might have not deliveredfull insightsinto the research topic

Capital markets have changed profoundly since green bonds were first introduced in 2013 as a way of financing programs benefiting social and environmental sustainability. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether green bond issues are related to value creation as compared with conventional bond issues, and how the relative size of a bond issue may impact this relationship. Using bonds issued on Nasdaq Stockholm from 2014 to 2020, our study finds no significant abnormal returns for green bonds, the benchmark of conventional bonds nor the comparison of the means. Further, we could not find an interaction effect between the relative issue size and the green bond. Hence, this study finds no indication that green bonds create value. However, we show that relative size has a positive and significant regression coefficient in all models, meaning that the ​larger the relative size of a bond issue, the more the stock price is expected to increase.

Addressing environmental issues has been a top priority in recent years all over the world. There are several options on how to address this problem also from a financial perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate how green bond issuance announcement impacts publicly traded stock prices through cumulative abnormal return (CAR) perspective. We focused our scope only to the Swedish market. Theory is based on three different models: the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), the market model, and the market return model, which all have been applied also in previous studies. Several previous studies indicate that there is a positive CAR around the bond announcement date. In our case findings based on all three models were, that there in fact is evidence of CAR in the Swedish market at different event windows. The strongest relationships were found in event windows five days before the event date and up to twenty days post-event date. These results could be an indicator, that investors are valuating green bonds positively, and therefore for companies it might be beneficial to engage in more environmentally friendly project financing.

Background: In 2007, the World Bank issued the first green bond in the world together with SEB. The first green corporate bond was issued by Vasakronan in 2013 and thereafter the market has expanded. Green bonds have the same financial characteristics as traditional bonds, the difference lies in the fact that the bond proceeds from green bonds must finance environmentally or climate friendly projects. The green bonds should give investors and issuers incentives to implement sustainable investments or projects. Aim: The purpose of the thesis is to describe and explain investors' motives and incentives for buying green bonds. Completion: The thesis is based on a qualitative method and eight interviews have been conducted. The interviewed persons represent investors. In order to shed light on the nature of green bonds and the market, a literature study has been designed. Conclusion: Prominent motives and driving forces for all investors are the demand from customers, the opportunity to show a sustainable profile and that green bonds often have the same financial characteristics as traditional bonds. / Bakgrund: År 2007 emitterade Världsbanken den första gröna obligationen i världen tillsammans med SEB. Den första gröna företagsobligationen emitterades av Vasakronan år 2013 och därefter har marknaden expanderat. Gröna obligationer har samma finansiella egenskaper som traditionella obligationer, dock ligger skillnaden i att obligationslikviden från gröna obligationer ska finansiera miljö- eller klimatvänliga projekt. De gröna obligationerna ska uppmuntra investerare och emittenter att genomföra hållbara investeringar eller projekt. Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att beskriva och förklara investerares motiv och drivkrafter till att köpa gröna obligationer. Genomförande: Uppsatsen baseras på en kvalitativ metod och åtta intervjuer har genomförts. De intervjuade personerna representerar investerare. För att belysa gröna obligationers och marknadens karaktärsdrag har en litteraturstudie utformats. Slutsats: Framträdande motiv och drivkrafter för samtliga investerare är efterfrågan från kunder, möjligheten att visa upp en hållbar profil och att gröna obligationer har ofta samma finansiella egenskaper som traditionella obligationer.

Background:  Entering a new geological epoch where humans are the main force shaping of the biosphere, have forced an immense stress onto society and the Planet with regards to sustainability. The United Nations and the Paris Agreement have strongly emphasized the urgent need to allocate finance onto urgently mitigating climate change. The financial sector has confronted this challenge through providing sources of finance to meet sustainability requirements. Thus, green bonds emerge as an instrument aimed to cooperate in the transition towards advancing sustainability.    Purpose: Given the ambiguity of green bonds impacts on environmental sustainability, this study explores the contributions of green bonds towards a fruitful transition towards sustainability. Being crucial stakeholders in the transition towards sustainability, these contributions have been examined in the context of Swedish municipalities    Method: To examine the contributions of green bonds in the given context, an exploratory research was conducted using a multiple case study design. Five municipalities, two investors and a municipal funding agency were interviewed though semi-structured interviews. A thematic analysis was performed on the empirical data. First, a within-in case analysis was conducted following a cross-case analysis allowing to find emergent and common patterns.   Conclusion: The green financial instrument does not appear to be a main driver of sustainability, nor does it have a significant influence on the environmental impact of the municipalities’ investment projects. Nevertheless, the study finds that green bonds contribute to advancing sustainability in municipalities through three main areas: Financial impetus, organizational effects and structure and requirements. Thus, the municipalities studied provide evidence that green bonds grant a small reduction in the cost of capital, produce organizational effects like increasing collaboration between the environmental and financial department and enhances transparency through its structure and requirements.

This thesis examined the effect of non-financial motives, namely pro-environmental or sustainability preference, in bond pricing on the European secondary market before and during the COVID-19 crisis over the period 02.01.2019-26.02.2021. To estimate the potential yield spread between green bonds and matched conventional bonds, we applied a stringent matching method and fixed-effect regression to explore the green bond premium. The result indicated a small positive premium of 0.46 bps before the COVID-19 (01.2019-02.2020) and a small negative premium of 0.2 bps during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis (03.2020-02.2021), and the premiums have significantly changed between the two study periods, implying that the COVID-19 had a significant effect on the GB premium. Thus, before the pandemic, investors demanded compensation in the form of a higher yield return on investing in green bonds; however, during the pandemic, investors are willing to accept a lower yield on the GBs in comparison to the equivalent CB to finance environmentally-friendly projects. Additionally, the paper investigated bond volatility by analyzing the standard deviation of the daily yield. Although green bonds tended to have a higher volatility, no robust conclusion could be drawn due to a lack of statistical significance.

Issuing environmentally aligned green bonds has become an increasingly popular way to raise capital for green investments during the last decade. This thesis explores potential pricing differences between green and conventional bonds, known as the green premium, on the Swedish secondary bond market. Prior green bond research is inconclusive regarding the direction, size and even existence of such a premium. By creating a sample of 50 matched pairs of green and conventional bonds, we show an average positive green premium of 10 bps on the Swedish market, indicating that Swedish green bonds trade at higher yields than their conventional counterparts. We also study whether the size of the green premium is affected by credit ratings and third-party green certification but find no evidence of such effects. Overall, the results from this thesis add to current green bond research by showing a positive green premium, but the lack of shown effects from credit ratings and green certification indicate that further study is needed to fully understand the pricing mechanisms of green bonds.

I takt med att klimatrelaterade problem blivit allt mer påtagliga har ett flertal internationella samarbeten och handlingsplaner presenterats, däribland Parisavtalet och EU kommissionens handlingsplan för finansiering av hållbar tillväxt. Studier i ämnet har visat att finans- och fastighetsmarknaden utgör en betydande roll i att uppnå den hållbara omställning som eftersträvas i dessa initiativ. För att möjliggöra detta anses gröna obligationer vara ett centralt verktyg i vägen framåt, men produkten bedöms bristfällig och kräver förändringar för att uppnå dess fulla potential.  Gröna obligationer introducerades 2008 och med grund i produktens jämförelsevis korta existens, föreligger en viss oro kring marknadens transparens och legitimitet. Genom att analysera perspektivet hos dagens investerare och undersöka effekten av externa granskningar, syftar denna studie till att identifiera otillräckliga marknadssegment där vidare utveckling kan bidra till att attrahera fler investerare. Denna studie har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod bestående av såväl litteraturstudier som semistrukturerade intervjuer med svenska bolag som investerar i gröna obligationer. Resultaten visade att investerare inte skiljer på avkastningskraven för gröna och konventionella obligationer. Majoriteten av respondenterna ansåg också att marknaden har stor utvecklingspotential där ökad transparens och tydligare definitioner urskilde sig. Genom att studera effekten av externa granskningar har denna studie även identifierat intressekonflikter hos tredjepartsverifierare. Med hjälp av striktare regleringar kan externa verifieringar bidra till ökad legitimitet och således attrahera ett större antal investerare, vilket i förlängningen kan bli avgörande för att uppnå Parisavtalets klimatmål. / As the number of problems regarding climate change has surged, many initiatives have taken place on international level. The Paris Agreement and the European Commission action plan for financing sustainable growth comprise the key endeavors in achieving international climate objectives. Studies have shown that financial and real estate markets will play a significant role in transitioning the world economy towards a sustainable future. In order to do so, green bonds have been identified as a key mechanism, but the product requires substantial development to unlock its full potential. Green bonds are defined, similarly to conventional bonds, as a interest bearing debt instrument, but with the requirement that the use of proceeds contribute to a climate positive project. Because of its recent introduction in 2008, some investors are concerned whether the market is legitimate or not. By analyzing the current investor perspective and examining the effect of external verifications, this study aims to identify insufficient market elements which can be improved and thereby attract more investors. This study has been carried out using a qualitative method consisting of literature studies as well as semi structured interviews with Swedish corporations which invest in the green bond market. The results showed that investors do not differentiate green and conventional bonds regarding yield requirements. The majority also expressed that green bonds have great potential for improvement where increased transparency and distinct definitions stood out. Furthermore, by studying external verifications, this study has identified issues of interest conflict in Third Party Verifiers which improvement is concluded to be pivotal in boosting investor reliance and accessing further investments.

Title: Green bonds – A beneficial financing form? Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis was to examine housing companies reasoning behind issuing green bonds for financing their projects. What advantages and disadvantages that are currently connected to green bonds and if the green bond market can motivate companies to build more sustainable.  Methodology: This thesis is built upon a literature review and a quantitative study, where the data was collected through a questionnaire sent out to various housing companies on the Swedish real estate market.  Findings: Weather or not green bonds is a beneficial financing for seems to be individual for each company. Companies with more ambitious sustainability goals seems to be more likely to issue green bonds. The positives with issuing green bonds is that the company is able to reach out to new investors and that the gain positive attention from important stakeholders. The current downsides with the financing form is that the issuing costs are currently higher for green bonds than conventional bonds and many companies still believe that they are not getting enough compensations for the higher costs. With this in regard it is not very likely that the green bond market can be a motivation for actors to build more sustainable. Today there are actors that do have both the financial capability and the projects needed to enter the market, that still chooses not to. Therefore, it is hard to believe that the green bond market in its current state will drive green investments that wouldn’t have been financed in any other way. / Titel: Gröna obligationer en fördelaktig finansieringsform? Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att ta reda på vad som motivera bostadsbolagen att emittera gröna obligationer, vilka för och nackdelar finns med finansieringsformen i dagsläget och om gröna obligationer kan styra företag att bygga mera hållbart.  Metod: Metodvalet var från början tänkt som en kvantitativ analys där data samlats in via en enkätundersökning, På grund av låg svarsfrekvens utökades resultat insamlingen i form av en litteraturstudie, tidigare studier på fördelar och nackdelar med emittering studerades och sammanställdes. Slutsatser: Resultatet tyder på att huruvida gröna obligationer är en fördelaktig finansierings form är väldigt individuellt, fördelarna är främst möjligheten att få nya investerare i företaget och att företaget ses som ett mer miljövänligt företag. Kritiken som riktas mot finansieringsformen är att emitteringskostnaderna blir högre för gröna obligationer än konventionella obligationer i och med tredje parts granskning och en utökad rapporteringsprocess. Detta är inte något som kompenseras för i prissättningen på obligationen.  Det är inte troligt att gröna obligationer kan motivera företag att bygga hållbarare. Fördelarna med finansieringsformen är inte tillräckliga ens för att alla företag med gröna projekt i sin portfölj ska vara beredda att gå in på marknaden.