Glitnir shortlisted for Sustainable Banking Awards

Nordic bank Glitnir has made the shortlist for the 2008 FT ‘Sustainable Deal of the Year’ award – for the second time in a row.

The Financial Times and IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, recently announced the short-lists for the 2008 FT Sustainable Banking Awards, the leading global awards for sustainability in finance.

For the second time in a row, Glitnir was short-listed for the “Sustainable Deal of the Year”.

The awards, now in their third year, are to recognize banks and other financial institutions that have shown leadership and innovation in integrating social, environmental and corporate governance considerations into their operations.

This year the nominees were selected from a record 182 entries coming from 129 institutions in 54 countries. Other banks short-listed in this category were Merrill Lynch (carbon finance to reduce deforestation), Citi (financing for rural housing), BlueOrchard and Morgan Stanley (microfinance loans) and Calyon (solar thermal power plants).

The “Deal” is one example of Glitnir’s success in the geothermal industry’s financial sector in the United States, which is the biggest market in the world for geothermal energy. Glitnir Capital Corp. provided a $15 million Senior Secured “Resource Verification Loan” to Hudson Ranch I, LLC (borrower) a subsidiary of CHAR LLC, an electricity generation company based on geothermal energy.

“This is an important milestone for the Glitnir Energy Team in Iceland and the US and reflects how the Banks strategy within Sustainable Energy is starting to pay off. Glitnir Bank was among the first financial institution to offer this sort of financial products in the USA. Last year we provided Nevada Geothermal with a similar loan,” said Magnus Bjarnason, Executive Vice President of International Banking at Glitnir Bank.

“The US geothermal market is very interesting for us as we foresee considerable developments in the energy market especially regarding alternative energy resources are. Geothermal Energy is surly one of the alternatives. Glitnir’s position in the US geothermal industry is strong and the outlook is very good” Bjarnason added.

The Hudson Ranch project is a net 49.9 MW geothermal generating facility being developed within the Salton Sea geothermal field in Imperial County California. The afore mentioned Bridge Loan Facility is being used to cover the cost of drilling and testing the initial two production wells for the geothermal power plant.

When completed the Hudson Ranch will be the first new stand alone geothermal power generation facility to be developed in 20 years in the Salton Sea geothermal field.

Glitnir’s niche sectors are rapidly growing and gaining evermore importance in Glitnir’s operations, representing 13% of the bank’s loan book and 43% of its corporate advisory in 2007. This successful concept is based upon sustainability and has been an important driver for Glitnir’s growth in recent years. Due to global warming, the urge for climate change actions is tremendous, which gives the sustainable energy niche a unique position in a booming industry.

Visit Glitnir’s corporate website for more information on the sustainable energy sector.

Media Contact:
Bjørn Richard Johansen
Managing Director, Corporate Communications, Glitnir
Tel: +47 47 800 100
E-mail: brj@glitnir.no