BCI looks for opportunities to invest in the fast-growing market of sustainable bonds. These use-of-proceeds bonds — labelled green, social, or sustainability — offer clients investment returns and exposure to positive sustainability outcomes, including climate mitigation strategies. Through primary market participation, our investments support leading issuers in directing funds toward tangible environmental and social solutions.

Overachieving our estimated $5 billion cumulative participation by 2025, BCI’s total historical participation in sustainable bonds reached more than $5.23 billion as of March 31, 2024. We’ve supported a total of 63 issuing entities through 113 new issues since 2013 and invested in 21 new issuances valued at just over $1 billion in this fiscal year alone.

Anne-Marie Gagnon, Director of ESG, sits on the board of the Canadian Bond Investors’ Association (CBIA) and chairs the CBIA’s ESG Committee. BCI is also a member of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) Green and Social Bond Principles, currently its only Canadian investor member. We promote the ICMA Green and Social Bond Principles to support market growth, encouraging qualified issuers to consider sustainable bonds as a financing mechanism within their sustainability strategies.

Engaging on Standards
Critical to improving the product offering for bond investors, we continue to engage underwriting banks and issuers to align with investors’ interests and expectations for improved transparency and rigour in accounting and reporting on sustainable finance targets. In addition, we actively support engagements and hold regular dialogue with market participants involved in the structuring and marketing of sustainable and labelled bonds.

BCI is a member of the ICMA Sustainability-Linked Bond (SLB) Working Group, and of the Sustainability-Linked Loans (SLL) Refinancing Instruments Taskforce. Sustainability-linked bonds and loans have general purpose use of proceeds with financial or structural components tied to achieving ESG targets. We disagree with the systematic characterization of sustainability-linked financing as sustainable finance by the underwriting community. BCI is a member of these efforts to ensure investors’ views are expressed and considered. We advocate to significantly strengthen the instruments’ shortcomings including the ambition of targets and the materiality of penalties associated with missed targets to deliver their intended purpose of incentivizing companies to achieve sustainability targets.

“Our engagement with bank dealers and issuing companies on sustainable bonds shows how the invest and influence pillars of our ESG strategy intersect. Influencing the behaviour of market participants gives us better options to invest in attractive opportunities, while actively investing gives us a stronger voice at the table.”
– Anne-Marie Gagnon, Director, ESG

Participation Across Issuers and Industries
BCI participates in the sustainable bond market by investing in a diverse universe of issuers, including sovereign, supranational and agency (SSA) issuers — such as all level of government organizations and development banks— and corporate investment grade and high-yield issuers.

Canadian-dollar-denominated SSA bonds represent over 40 per cent of our total historical participation, with issuances by development banks representing under 10 per cent, and Canadian governments and agencies such as Public Sector Entities reflecting over 30 per cent of total historical participation. Examples from our fiscal year, ending March 31, 2024, include:

• $450 million invested in green and social bonds from Canadian federal, provincial, and municipal governments.
• $100 million invested in social and sustainability bonds issued by development banks.

Canadian-dollar-denominated corporate issuances represent over 30 per cent of our historical participation. Examples from this fiscal year include:

• $125 million+ invested in Canadian utilities issuing green and sustainability bonds.
• $100 million+ invested in Canadian real estate and financial institutions issuing green and sustainability bonds.

U.S. corporate issuance represents over 25 per cent of our historical participation, including about 15 per cent from financial institutions and just under 10 per cent from industrials. This fiscal year, we observed reduced supply in the US market, especially from banks compared to previous years. Investment examples from this fiscal year include:

• $40 million+ invested in industrial companies’ green bonds.

Use of Proceeds

Historically, BCI has subscribed to 113 sustainable bonds, representing over $5.23 billion in initial participation in support of 63 issuing entities¹. Some examples of our 2023-2024 investments are included in the table below.

^{1 At March 31, 2024}

BCI’s public markets team is pleased to announce the appointment of Chris Weitzel to Senior Managing Director of the Fixed Income & Foreign Exchange (FIFE) team. This transition will ensure continuity of our high-level performance and value delivery to our clients.

Chris joined BCI in 2018 to develop and launch BCI’s Funding Program. In 2023, the Funding Program received the highest possible long-term credit ratings from major global agencies [Moody’s (Aaa), S&P (AAA), and DBRS Morningstar (AAA)]. The program also issued its inaugural debt offering which received interest from over 50 global investors. Prior to joining BCI, Chris had more than 25 years of experience in fixed income, foreign exchange, and funding at major global investment banks in Toronto, London, and New York, after several years with the Bank of Canada.

Chris Weitzel takes over the role following the retirement of Chris Beauchemin, who was with BCI for 35 years. Under Chris Beauchemin’s leadership the FIFE team expanded and created new products such as the Corporate Bond Fund, Principal Credit Fund, Funding Desk, and Active FX, which have brought diversification and tremendous value to our clients.

“I sincerely thank Chris Beauchemin for his remarkable 35-year journey with BCI, and his exceptional leadership which has driven the growth and success of our Fixed Income & Foreign Exchange program. As we welcome Chris Weitzel into his new role, we recognize his remarkable contributions to date, and we are excited to see the program and team continue to thrive under his leadership,” said Daniel Garant, Executive Vice President & Global Head, Public Markets.

VICTORIA, British Columbia — British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) issued C$1.25 billion senior unsecured notes, with a coupon of 4.90% and a maturity date of June 2, 2033. The notes settled on October 26, 2023 and are rated Aaa by Moody’s Investors Service, AAA by S&P Global Ratings, and AAA by DBRS Limited. The offering was oversubscribed with over C$1.9 billion in orders from more than 50 global investors.

BCI accesses debt markets to support our clients’ investment objectives, providing broader portfolio diversification, an improved risk-adjusted investment profile, and enhanced liquidity. Proceeds from the offering will be used for general investment purposes.

The offering was made on an agency basis by a syndicate of agents co-led by RBC Capital Markets and TD Securities and including BMO Capital Markets, CIBC World Markets, Desjardins Securities, Scotiabank and Laurentian Bank Securities as co-managers.

For more information on BCI’s Funding Program, visit Investor Relations.

About BCI
British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) is amongst the largest institutional investors in Canada with $233.0 billion in gross assets under management, as of March 31,2023. Based in Victoria, British Columbia, with offices in Vancouver, New York City, and London, U.K., BCI manages a portfolio of diversified public and private market investments on behalf of our 32 British Columbia public sector clients. With a global outlook, BCI integrates ESG factors in all investment decisions and activities that convert savings into productive capital to meet clients’ risk and return requirements over time. Founded in 1999, BCI is a statutory corporation created by the Public Sector Pension Plans Act.

Contact
Olga Petrycki, Director, External Stakeholder Engagement
media@bci.ca

This media release is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, nor does it constitute a recommendation or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell a security or class of security. The views and opinions expressed in this media release are those of BCI and do not necessarily represent the views of its clients or investee companies. The information in this media release is provided as of the date hereof. Contents copyright © BCI® 2023.

VICTORIA, British Columbia — British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) received long-term credit ratings from global credit rating agencies:

“BCI’s credit ratings reflect the strength of BCI’s diversified portfolio, our robust governance framework, and confidence in BCI’s investment management and operational capabilities,” said Daniel Garant, Executive Vice President & Global Head, Public Markets. “We are committed to maintaining a high-quality credit profile for investors in BCI’s debt program.”

BCI accesses debt markets to support the investment objectives of its clients, providing broader portfolio diversification and an improved risk-adjusted investment profile.

For additional information visit BCI’s Investor Relations site.

About BCI
British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) is amongst the largest institutional investors in Canada with $233.0 billion in gross assets under management, as of March 31,2023. Based in Victoria, British Columbia, with offices in Vancouver, New York City, and London, U.K., BCI manages a portfolio of diversified public and private market investments on behalf of its 32 British Columbia public sector clients. With a global outlook, BCI integrates ESG factors in all investment decisions and activities that convert savings into productive capital to meet clients’ risk and return requirements over time. Founded in 1999, BCI is a statutory corporation created by the Public Sector Pension Plans Act.
For more information visit BCI.ca or LinkedIn

Contact
Olga Petrycki, Director, External Stakeholder Engagement
media@bci.ca

This media release is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, nor does it constitute a recommendation or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell a security or class of security. The views and opinions expressed in this media release are those of BCI and do not necessarily represent the views of its clients or investee companies. The information in this media release is provided as of the date hereof. Contents copyright © BCI^® 2023.