BNP Paribas closed a $100 million syndicated revolving credit facility structured as a sustainability-linked loan (SLL) with Empresas CMPC, a Chilean pulp and paper company. BNP Paribas, as joint lead arranger and sole sustainability coordinator, led the group of banks involved in the transaction and will be the administrative agent of the facility.
This is the first SLL for Empresas CMPC and the first for BNP Paribas in Latin America. It is also the first SLL revolving credit facility in Chile with environmental key performance indicators. The facility includes four environmental sustainability performance targets based on greenhouse gas emissions, industrial water use, industrial waste to landfill, and area for protection, conservation and restoration.
The recent launch of the UN-backed Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), of which BNP Paribas is a member, is reinforcing the need to address biodiversity loss and manage associated nature related risks. The aforementioned KPIs align with tackling this objective, along with Empresas CMPC’s public corporate sustainability goals, and cover a range of sustainability issues for Empresas CMPC and the pulp and paper industry as a whole. The SLL also offers incentives to achieve results for the company in line and beyond publicly expressed commitments.
“With our stated purpose to accompany our clients on their journey to a more sustainable future by creating sustainable financing solutions, we are delighted to advise CMPC in their comprehensive SLL,” Florence Pourchet, head of CIB Latin America at BNP Paribas, who also oversees the bank’s sustainable finance strategy in the Americas, said. “This transaction highlights the positive role sustainable finance can play in reinforcing a holistic approach to sustainable forest management so that CMPC can continue to build on their already impressive sustainability and business ambitions.”
BNP Paribas has acted as sustainability coordinator or sustainability structuring agent in multiple sustainable finance transactions this year. In late May 2020, Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF), the Development Bank of Latin America, issued Latin America’s first COVID-19 response bond, with BNP Paribas acting as lead bookrunner. The €700 million ($823.38 million) five-year social bond aims to support its member countries’ COVID-19-related relief and recovery costs.
In North America, BNP Paribas closed a sustainability-linked loan with JetBlue Airways in February 2020 via an amendment to an existing senior secured revolving credit facility — the first sustainability-linked revolving credit facility for the airline industry. In the same month, it closed another sustainability-linked syndicated credit facility in Canada with WSP Global and in January 2020 it closed a bi-lateral, incentive-linked corporate revolving credit facility with Brookfield Renewable Partners in Canada. In EMEA, the bank closed the largest ever ESG-linked subscription credit facility with EQT, a Stockholm-based investor, linking responsible investment metrics with the private equity space.
