Mexico’s Vinte is in the business of building houses with an eye on the environment and with community at the core.
In the market 22 years, the company owns 17 different housing developments with more than 56,000 homes under its belt. Its projects provide homes for low-, middle- and medium-high income sectors that include amenities and services not usually associated with housing developments. Its projects are about schools, recreational areas, green spaces, safety and environmental stewardship, particularly water use, as well as family homes.
“Vinte started with an idea about community, thinking about harmony in the community and with nature,” says Vinte CFO Domingo Valdés. “We began working along the lines of ESG principles before they were branded as a concept.”
Last November, the company issued a five-year, 1.5 billion Mexican peso-denominated ($87.3 million) sustainable bond – the company’s largest ever such offering – in order to build 3,700 green, affordable homes.
The transaction, which wins the award for Social Infrastructure Financing of the Year, blends social and environmental goals in an innovative social bond with the potential to benefit many families in Mexico and a unique focus on middle-income households.
IDB Invest, the private sector arm of the Inter-American Development Bank, was the bond’s anchor investor, buying half of the placement – the first time the bank had acted in such a capacity for a deal in Mexico. Vinte has worked with the IDB twice before, starting with a small loan in 2012, but the new project took the relationship to a different level, says Valdés.
The 3,700 homes will be built in line with EDGE (Excellence in Design for Great Efficiencies), a globally-recognized green building certification created by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The project will guarantee Vinte’s position as the developer with the largest number of EDGE certified homes in the world, according to the IFC.
Gonzalo Pizzuto, Vinte’s director of investor relations, says the key performance indicators for the bond are very clear. “We are not talking only about EDGE, but schools, water treatment plants and energy efficiency,” he says.
The project was conceived to save 157,000 cubic meters of water and avoid 2,400 tons of C02 emissions annually. The design includes neighborhood assets, such as bike trails and dog parks, with homes built in “cluster neighborhoods,” as a way of providing enhanced security. The target population are low- and middle-income families.
Vinte is also taking a new step to increase its footprint, with shareholders approving in July 2024 the acquisition of Javer, a competing developer.
The tie-up with Javer not only adds to Vinte’s housing numbers, including EDGE homes, but Valdés says it will help the company take better advantage of nearshoring, as business enterprises expand in Mexico.
“Nearshoring is not going happen if without access to water and if there is nowhere for people to live,” he says.
Vinte has focused its work on six states, Hidalgo, Mexico, Nuevo León, Puebla, Querétaro and Quintana Roo. With Javer it adds Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Jalisco and Tamaulipas.
Vinte $87 million Sustainable Bond
Issuer: Vinte Viviendas Integrales and S.A.B. de C.V.
Anchor Investor: IDB Invest
Issuer’s International Counsel: Holland & Knight
Investor’s Local Counsel: Garrigues
Issuer’s Local Counsel: Kuri Breña, Sánchez, Ugarte y Aznar
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