Key Events During the Reporting Period

The coronavirus pandemic is still having a pronounced adverse impact on the world’s economies. Vonovia’s business model has proven to be robust and resilient to date. As the pandemic is still not having any considerable impact on its net assets, financial position and results of operations, Vonovia can report positive business development in the first quarter of 2021, too.

During the coronavirus pandemic, we were always able to successfully maintain our business processes and protect our employees and customers alike. Digitized processes allowed a large number of our employees to switch seamlessly between working on location and working from home.

On January 11, 2021, the Management Board of Vonovia SE decided to merge Vonovia Finance B.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands, with Vonovia SE on a cross-border basis. The notarized deeds regarding the transaction were not yet drawn up at the time of reporting.

On January 12, 2021, Vonovia continued to forge ahead with the digitalization of its finance division and issued its first fully digital registered bond in the amount of € 20 million with a term of three years. The issue used security tokens that allow ownership rights to real assets to be transferred on the internationally established Stellar blockchain. The transaction is a novelty on the capital market and was settled using the online marketplace firstwire.

On March 24, 2021, Vonovia issued its first green bond in the amount of € 600 million. The bond runs for ten years with an annual interest rate of 0.625%. The green bond is one of the Group’s ways of continuing with its own sustainability strategy and it sees this instrument as a future-oriented addition to its financing strategy. Vonovia plans to use this additional liquidity to finance sustainability projects in Germany, Austria and Sweden, among other things. These include investments in new construction and modernization projects as well as the field of renewable energy, for instance, in generating solar energy through additional photovoltaic installations.