Bron
Umweltbank
De Umweltbank uit Duitsland is de eerste Duitse ecologische bank die een notering heeft op de effectenbeurs.
Artikel in het engels:
A Nuremberg-based bank specializing in ecological investments has just gone public the first of its kind to do so in Germany. But, according to the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the stock market debut of the Umweltbank (Environmentbank) comes at an inauspicious time. Under a headline proclaiming "German companies facing ecological economic crisis" the broadsheet points to the fate of the Eco Bank, a Frankfurt bank launched on an environmental platform in 1988 and sent for liquidation by its remaining shareholders just last weekend. The article goes on to list other sustainability-oriented companies that had ceased trading or been taken over and suggests the greening of established mainstream companies may have helped fade the appeal of niche firms. Yesterdays report quotes a micro-economist at the Institute for Ecological Research in Berlin as saying that German consumers no longer see the environment as the "source of true salvation".
Nevertheless, the UmweltBank has had an astonishing stock market launch:
its issue price of E7.50 rocketed to E11.50 at first trading on June 25, with no signs of a return to earth yet. Launched in 1997 by Horst Popp, a former member of Eco Banks board, the Umweltbank finances projects in the fields of solar energy, wind and hydropower, energy-efficient housing and sustainable industry – more than 1,300 of them to date. In four years, its trading volume has risen from DM102m (US$44m) to DM466m (US$202m) and the client base from 7,000 to 24,000. However, the independent bank has no branches it helps keep down greenhouse gas emissions. Umweltbanks shares closed at E11.50 last night.
