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£1.4bn positive incentive loan marks the first UK corporate to link its interest rate to a sustainable infrastructure score – underlining the power of green finance.
GRESB data acts as the ESG benchmark for real assets, and in 2018 were composed of 904 real-estate funds, 75 infrastructure funds, 280 infrastructure assets and 25 debt portfolios. The data are used by both institutional and retail investors.
As interest in ESG-driven (environmental, social and governance) investment grows, the Thames Water transaction serves as a blueprint for integrating sustainability performance and financing requirements. The EMEA market for positive incentive loans has expanded significantly since 2017, which BNP Paribas believes may have topped €40 billion in 2018.
The BNP Paribas teams behind the transaction – comprising Global Banking, Sustainable Finance and Loans – were named Team of the Month in The Banker magazine's February 2019 edition. Two of the largest positive incentive loans to date were also arranged by BNP Paribas: Danone's €2 billion transaction linked to its ESG score and Solvay's €2bn deal linked to a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target.
