ABN AMRO Bank served as sole lender on a new €100 million ($107.91 million) green revolving credit facility for Wereldhave, which launched a green financing framework.
“We are very happy with the closing of this new green RCF for Wereldhave as inaugural trade under the green finance framework,” Axel Sibmacher van Nooten, head of infrastructure coverage at ABN AMRO, said. “It gave us the opportunity to combine two of our core values by supporting the company in its strategic transition process as well as contributing to their sustainability efforts.”
This new facility, with a term of two years, will increase the financial headroom of Wereldhave and contribute to the company’s financing activities through 2021. The facility also will be used to finance Wereldhave’s LifeCentral Strategy to transform identified shopping centers into sustainable and energy efficient full service centers as defined in the Wereldhave green finance framework.
“Sustainability has been integrated in Wereldhave’s operations for years,” Dennis de Vreede, CFO of Wereldhave. “With the energy transition ahead of us and our commitment to the science-based targets initiative recently, this green financing framework now allows us to integrate our financial structure with sustainability. The newly established green revolving financing facility immediately reflects how we can improve our financial structure within a sustainable context.”
In order to anchor sustainability into its financing activities, Wereldhave developed the green financing framework. It aims to attract funding that will be allocated to sustainable and energy efficient real estate assets which contribute to social and sustainable engagement in local communities. Under this framework, Wereldhave can issue a variety of green finance instruments, including green bonds, green private placements, green (syndicated) loan facilities and other green debt instruments. ABN AMRO Bank acted as advisor in the development of the framework.
