Navigator launches €100 million bond loan with ESG criteria

  • ECO News
  • 29 July 2021

Banco BPI and CaixaBank were the advisors on the structuring of the Navigator Company's bond loan.

The Navigator Company announced this Thursday that it will issue, on August 5, a bond loan of €100 million maturing in five years, with the purpose of increasing the maturity profile of the debt and reducing the company’s financing cost.

“This operation will contribute to extending the average life of the group’s debt, as well as reducing the company’s financing cost, besides having conditions adjusted to comply with sustainability commitments,” the company said in a statement, informing that Banco BPI and CaixaBank were the advisors on the structuring of the ESG bond loan (according to environmental, social and governance criteria).

The Navigator Company was the first company to launch, in 2019, a line of Green Commercial Paper in Portugal, whose financing conditions were also linked to ESG criteria, certified by the environmental agency Sustainalytics.

The Portuguese company stresses that the new operation is indexed to two ESG indicators that are part of the company’s Sustainability Agenda and aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): SDG 13 – Climate Action and SDG 15 – Protect Earth Life.

“The first indicator defines targets for the reduction of CO2 emissions and fits into the Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality, in which the company assumes the commitment to be carbon neutral in its industrial complexes by the year 2035,” it said in the same statement. By that time, the company expects to reduce its CO2 emissions by 86%. This goal implies a total investment of €154 million.

Other goals include: reducing fossil CO2 emissions by replacing technologies; reducing specific energy consumption by 2025; achieving 100% electricity production from renewable sources; and, finally, offsetting non-eliminable emissions.