Aberdeen City Council has become the first local authority in Scotland to issue its own bonds.
The council announced the successful pricing of index-linked bonds for an aggregate principal amount of £370 million on Wednesday.
Cash raised through the bond issue will go towards the council's capital plan, which includes redeveloping the city centre, building schools and houses, and road construction.
Read more: Nicola Sturgeon's soft Brexit plan for Scotland "highly unlikely", says her adviser
Council leader Jennifer Laing said: "This is a remarkable achievement by this council in securing this investment in the future of our city.
"Having already secured a credit rating from Moody's Investors Service at Aa2, the issue of the bond sees another step forward by the council in delivering a stable and fiscally prudent financial strategy that is both affordable and sustainable for the future, as demonstrated by investor confidence."
Finance, policy and resources committee convener Willie Young said: "The bond issue is part of our strategy to maintain a diversified funding portfolio that provides us with greater financial flexibility.
Read more: Nicola Sturgeon's soft Brexit plan for Scotland "highly unlikely", says her adviser
"This flexibility will help Aberdeen anchor its status as both a global energy hub as well as ensuring that we have the infrastructure required to attract world-class businesses as we seek to broaden and diversify our economic base."
The UK Government issues bonds but while several municipal authorities in the US do the same, the majority of local governments in the UK do not.
Read more: Nicola Sturgeon's soft Brexit plan for Scotland "highly unlikely", says her adviser
Warrington Council in the north-west of England became the first English local authority to issue bonds in a decade when it launched a £150 million public bond in 2015.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel