Scottish energy giant SSE has announced that its 75%-owned subsidiary, SSEN Transmission, has successfully issued a new £500m green bond.

The 20-year bond will mature in January 2044 at a fixed coupon of 5.5%, with an all-in funding cost of 5.575%.

SSE confirmed that the latest issuance is the Perth-headquartered group’s seventh green bond in eight years, suggesting it also “reaffirms its status” as the largest UK corporate issuer of green bonds.

The move brings the total outstanding green bonds issued by SSE and subsidiaries to £3.7bn, of which £1.3bn has been issued directly by SSEN Transmission.

Chief financial officer at SSE, Barry O’Regan, commented: “SSE is investing in high-quality assets right across the group and our Transmission business has a significant pipeline of nationally important investments which will make a significant impact as Scotland and the UK seek to meet renewables deployment and climate targets.”

SSE said the proceeds from the latest green bond will specifically help finance and refinance critical national infrastructure projects within SSEN Transmission, with the business benefiting from strong visibility over future growth through Ofgem’s Large Onshore Transmission Investments (LOTI) re-opener, and the Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework.

Alongside greater certainty over supply chain costs, the visibility from LOTI and ASTI led to SSE updating its investment programme, or Net-Zero Acceleration Programme Plus (NZAP Plus), in November last year.

SSE now expects to invest £20.5bn across the five years to 2026/27, with SSEN Transmission expected to invest around £7.5bn net, and around £10bn gross, in that period.

“These projects are essential to the clean energy transition and this bond therefore offers an attractive proposition to investors looking to channel finance into green infrastructure,” added O’Regan.

“Today’s new green bond has been extremely well received and was 3.5 times oversubscribed. This new issuance is consistent with our commitment to maintaining a strong balance sheet through financial discipline and will help us deliver our increased £20.5bn investment under our NZAP Plus.”

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