International law firm Clifford Chance has advised the European Investment Bank (EIB) on the issuance of its first euro-denominated digital bond on a private blockchain. The landmark transaction is the EIB’s second euro-denominated digitally native bond issuance and its first under Luxembourg law. The EUR 100 million, two-year bond was issued, recorded and settled using private blockchain-based technology, via Goldman Sachs’ tokenisation platform – GS DAPTM. The transaction is also the first syndicated bond issued by a public institution to be admitted to the Luxembourg Stock Exchange’s Securities Official List.
“This transaction demonstrates the scope for technological innovation in the capital markets”, comments Steve Jacoby, a partner at Clifford Chance in Luxembourg. “We are very proud to have advised the EIB on the legal aspects of this significant transaction. This was Clifford Chance at its best: working on an innovative, complex and multi-jurisdictional deal with a cross-border multi-disciplinary team made up of capital markets, regulatory and tech experts in Luxembourg, Frankfurt and Paris.”
As stated by Marc Benzler, a partner at Clifford Chance in Frankfurt: “Working across jurisdictions and combining our market-leading regulatory and capital markets expertise is one of the strong points of our firm and this transaction showcases our pan-European capabilities in the area of digital transformation of European capital markets.”
“The list of innovative features on this EIB transaction is impressive, not least the use of central bank digital currency tokens in a cross-chain T+0 settlement process. It was one of the most intellectually stimulating and rewarding capital markets projects that we have had the chance to work on”, according to counsel Alexander Tollast in Paris.
The cross-border Clifford Chance team advising the EIB consisted of Steve Jacoby (Luxembourg), Marc Benzler (Germany), Christian Hissnauer (Germany), Jonathan Lewis (Paris), CĂ©dric Burford (Paris), Alexander Tollast (Paris), Federica Gamen (Luxembourg) and Thomas Guala Molino (Paris).
The joint lead managers (Goldman Sachs, Santander and Société Générale) were advised by Allen & Overy, and Ashurst advised Goldman Sachs in relation to its tokenisation platform.
