The United Arab Emirates’ renewable energy company Masdar is deploying green finance on an “industrial scale” and setting global standards in the sphere, according to its finance chief.
Speaking on Friday at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, an event held as part of the city’s Sustainability Week, Mazin Khan, chief financial officer of Masdar, said: “For us this industrial scale deployment of green finance manifests itself via three main sources of capital.
“The first of these is our own capital investment via our reserves, the second is non-recourse project financing of our projects that are highly bankable, and the third is green bonds, a financial instrument we have tremendous belief in.”
Green Bonds Central to Exponential Growth
Khan revealed that in the past three years Masdar has issued almost $3 billion worth of green bonds. In its latest issuance in May, the company raised $1 billion. The bond was issued in two equal tranches of $500 million, with tenors of 5 and 10 years and coupons of 4.875% and 5.375% respectively.
The issuance attracted significant oversubscription with a peak orderbook of $6.6 billion, and strong demand from both regional and international investors, including several of the world’s dedicated green funds.
The move followed issuances of $750 million and $1 billion worth of green bonds in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
“We view green bonds as a vital third pillar in achieving our ambition of 100 gigawatt in renewable energy portfolio capacity by 2030. In December, we hit the 65 GW mark from a level of 10 GW in less than five years. This exponential growth rate will continue and green bonds will be integral to that.”
Issuing In A Competitive Green Bond Market
Khan said the green bond market has matured tremendously over the past decade. “Issuances of 100-year bonds are no longer considered unusual, and the field for issuances of 5 to 10-year tenors is highly competitive. We embrace the challenge of having to differentiate ourselves in a very competitive field wholeheartedly.
“One of the ways, we do so at Masdar – given our growth profile – is flagging our devised in-house Green Finance Framework which stipulates that every single dollar we raise from green bonds goes towards funding a new renewable energy project, and not an existing one on our portfolio.”
Khan said this makes it stand out as a fresh investment opportunity for reducing greenhouse gases and carbon emissions, and supportive of energy transformation across the globe, especially in emerging markets and developing economies.
“So, that perhaps differentiates us from other issuers of green paper where the proceeds of their raise may go to already existing renewables projects. We market these effectively as ‘dark green bonds,’ giving investors complete transparency and confidence about how their money is being spent.”
Its Framework has also expanded the eligibility criteria beyond Masdar’s traditional strengths in solar and wind power to green hydrogen and standalone battery storage projects.
“Overall, I think we offer some very powerful differentiators. Of course, investors themselves can be the judge of that. All I can say is that our last issuance [in May 2025] was nearly seven times oversubscribed. That’s proof of investors’ faith in our commitment to getting it right when it comes to deploying green finance as a vehicle for sustainable change.”
