The lenders have agreed to provide financial incentives in the form of lower interest rates for COFCO International to achieve pre-agreed sustainability targets covering the traceability and socio-environmental screening of its Brazil soy supplies and overall Sustainalytics ESG rating.
All margin savings will be used to fund the company’s own sustainability initiatives.
ANZ and BBVA are joint sustainability coordinators while BBVA is also the documentation and facility agent.
This is COFCO International’s second sustainability-linked loan. The company had announced a $2.3 billion sustainability-linked loan in July 2019, which was the largest sustainability-linked loan for a commodity trader.
The loan is based on Loan Market Association Sustainability Linked Loan Principles.
The loan was agreed with the following banks (in alphabetical order): Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Bank of China (BOC), China Construction Bank (CCB), China Development Bank (CDB) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)
More information: https://www.cofcointernational.com/newsroom/cofco-international-secures-new-sustainability-linked-loan/