Friday, December 28, 2018
Henkel pursues innovative ways in financing: The company concluded a so called ‘Green Loan’ – as the first corporate in Germany and as the first company within its sector. The credit facility has a total volume of 1.5 billion euros and replaces the existing 700 million and 800 million revolving credit facilities. It has a maturity of up to seven years. The interest rate of the new credit facility is linked to Henkel’s performance in three independent sustainability ratings.
“When reorganizing our syndicated credit lines, we deliberately opted for the concept of the ‘green loan’. We are proud to be the first German company concluding a credit facility with its terms linked to the sustainability performance. We are convinced that sustainability is becoming increasingly important for the financial markets and investors,” said Henkel CFO Carsten Knobel. “The agreement underlines our leading position in sustainability and at the same time emphasizes our ambition to improve further our very good rating positions in this area.” Carsten added further.
The interest rate of the credit facility will be adjusted according to a change in Henkel’s sustainability performance based on the ratings of Sustainalytics, EcoVadis and ISS-oekom, which are among the leading providers of sustainability assessments globally. The three different sustainability rating agencies were included to ensure a balanced and comprehensive assessment of Henkel’s sustainability performance.
A total of 15 national and international banks participated, reflecting the global reach of Henkel’s activities. Banco Santander and UniCredit coordinated the transaction and acted as Active Bookrunners. Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING, J.P. Morgan, Royal Bank of Scotland, Société Générale and Standard Chartered Bank acted as Bookrunners. BayernLB, Commerzbank and Goldman Sachs participated as Lead Arrangers.
No further financial details of the transaction were disclosed.
Tags: conclude, first German company, Green Loan, Henkel, sydicated
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