Tideway green notes issue gets highest S&P Green Evaluation rating

Bazalgette Tunnel’s £75 million fixed-rate senior secured green notes issuance to design, build, commission and maintain the Thames Tideway Tunnel has received S&P Global Ratings’ highest Green Evaluation rating.

The E1 score – the highest of four S&P gradings – breaks down as:

• a transparency score of 88 which “reflects the extensive disclosure requirements set by the regulators, including a “comprehensive assessment of the environmental impacts of the project’s construction and operational phases”;

• a mitigation score of 97 acknowledged the “large, systemwide nature of the project, as well as its position at the top end of S&P’s water sustainability hierarchy”; and

• an “excellent” governance score of 93 that “reflects the pure play and highly regulated nature of Bazalgette Tunnel as sole owner of the Thames Tideway Tunnel.

The Thames Tideway Tunnel is part of the London Tideway Improvement – a part of the UK’s efforts to comply with the 1991 EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive after the European Court of Justice found it in breach of in 2012.