Vesteda first real estate investor to use public blockchain in green financing

Vesteda arranged a digital green bond on the public blockchain to gain experience with this technology. With this, Vesteda raised EUR 5 million from DekaBank, a German institutional investor. The proceeds of this transaction will be used to (re)finance sustainable middle rental housing. Vesteda is the first in the real estate sector to raise institutional money through a digital green bond. ABN AMRO assisted Vesteda as arranger.

The entire process of preparing, placing and documenting of the bond was digital. Ownership of the bond was recorded in tokens on the blockchain. With the transaction, DekaBank received unique keys to securely access these tokens.

Frits Vervoort, cfo of Vesteda: "For Vesteda, it was a great learning experience to arrange a digital green bond by means of public blockchain. We have gained valuable knowledge on the benefits of blockchain technology in financing solutions. We are thankful for DekaBank for their trust in us and ABN AMRO for arranging this transaction. We will closely follow further developments as we expect this technology will help us further in the future."  

Olivier Aartsen, Head of Debt Capital Markets (DCM): "At ABN AMRO, we are very pleased with the placement of the digital bond for Vesteda, as well as the debt that DekaBank provided this way. We enjoyed working with Vesteda and DekaBank on this transaction, who have demonstrated to be open to innovations.”