Appeal on the Capital Market

2022 was a turbulent year, not least on the capital markets. High inflation rates, rising interest rates, a slowdown in economic growth and the risk of a recession remain matters of concern to investors. This can also be seen in Vonovia’s share price, which fell at an above-average rate in 2022. However, we are observing an ever-wider gap between capital market expectations on the one hand, and ongoing stable development on the residential real estate market on the other (see Vonovia SE on the Capital Market).

The construction and management of residential real estate is a business with a long-term focus. Our aim in this segment is to bring economic activity hand in hand with environmental benefit, living up to the various expectations of stakeholders. It is important to us to provide relevant information on our company and our economic development as well as on the sustainable direction of Vonovia, thereby providing an accurate picture of Vonovia. We want to generate attractive risk-adjusted rates of return for our investors and achieve sustainable revenue and value increases. This strengthens trust in the Vonovia brand.

We are committed to the principles of the social market economy and profitability. Economic success is the prerequisite for further investments in environmental and social sustainability. At the same time, we firmly believe that these investments also pay off in terms of our appeal for investors. This is substantiated by the growing demand for sustainable financial products and the ever greater establishment of ESG criteria as a basis for investment decisions.

We value having access to a broad mix of financing instruments so that we can choose the right product at the right time, e.g., bonds, promissory notes, secured real estate loans, commercial papers, working capital facilities and subsidy loans from KfW and EIB. In November 2022, the EIB granted Vonovia an unsecured loan of € 600 million to support the company’s multi-year energy-efficient building modernization program. The portfolio is rounded off with innovative financing sources such as a tokenized promissory note. This enables us to communicate with different capital market actors, such as investors, banks and insurers.

Sustainable bonds play a particularly important role in our financing strategy. After issuing our first green bond in 2021, all seven bonds placed in 2022, which accounted for a total sum of four billion euros and 1.25 billion Swedish kronor, were designed to be sustainable. These included three green bonds and four social bonds. Through these bonds, we are catering to capital market demand in a targeted manner, as demonstrated by the order books, which have been oversubscribed on multiple occasions.

The European Union Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) is aimed at providers of financial products and financial advisers such as banks, asset managers, institutional investors and insurance companies. Under the SFDR, these groups are required to align their products, processes and strategies with ESG guidelines. We have made our Sustainable Finance Framework consistent with the EU taxonomy, which was confirmed by an independent third party in a Second Party Opinion (SPO). All green bonds that we issue under this framework are environmentally sustainable as defined in the EU taxonomy (EU environmental objective 1 – climate change mitigation). For example, a fund classified under Article 9 SFDR has the option of investing in green bonds issued by Vonovia. We have published our Sustainable Finance Framework and further information about our sustainable bond strategy on our Investor Relations website.

Communication with our stakeholders on the capital market is handled by the Investor Relations (IR) division in close consultation with the Management Board. Transparency is the watchword here. Through formats such as investor conferences and roadshows, we seek out dialogue – including and especially on ESG topics – with our shareholders and potential investors. Face-to-face conversations, additional property tours and the participation in conferences for private investors represent additional communication channels.

After a two-year pause due to the coronavirus pandemic, Vonovia’s seventh Capital Markets Day was held in Bochum on September 27, 2022. We took the event, which focused on the ecological aspect of the megatrend of sustainability, as an opportunity to delve deeper into various topics including, in particular, decarbonization tools, the Energy Center of the Future and the “Internet of Things,” with around 50 investors and analysts. The Capital Markets Day concluded with a property tour in Bochum, where we presented and explained a number of projects, including our “Energy Center of the Future,” where we conduct research into innovative energy systems based on real-world conditions and test how they can be implemented in practice.

At the same time, IR acts in an inward-facing way so that the topics communicated to us by capital market actors come to the attention of the right people within the company.

Once again in 2022, we achieved good to very good results in all ESG ratings and benchmarks relevant for Vonovia and its investors, even managing to improve further in some cases. As such, we continue to be listed on the renowned Dow Jones Sustainability Index Europe as well as on sustainability indices such as the DAX 50-ESG or the STOXX Global ESG Leaders, to name but a few examples, and have been awarded Prime status by ISS-ESG. In terms of MSCI ESG Ratings, we were promoted to the highest rating category (AAA) in 2022, while at Sustainalytics we are among the top five performers in the real estate sector (out of 1,070 companies, as of December 31, 2022).

For 2023, we have set ourselves the goal of maintaining our consistently high performance in the relevant ESG ratings, including for the integrated Group, and continuing to present our sustainability performance to the capital market in a comprehensive and transparent way. As well as performing regular checks to see whether we are listed in the relevant indices, we also use the results of the rating process and peer group comparisons to further develop our sustainability measures in a targeted manner.

Within the company, the Sustainability/Strategy department is responsible for actively managing our participation in ESG ratings, involving the operating departments in this process. The Investor Relations department and the Sustainability/Strategy department report to the CEO. Decisions regarding ESG ratings are made in the sustainability committee, which also receives regular information on developments in this area. The Finance and Treasury department, which reports to the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), is responsible for the implementation of our financial instruments.