BBVA signs with EDF a €300 million sustainable revolving credit facility
BBVA signs with the French electricity company EDF a €300 million sustainability-linked revolving credit facility (RCF) which incorporates a pricing adjustment based on the company’s sustainability performance linked to CO2 emissions and energy efficiency.
With this transaction, BBVA reached another milestone in the sustainable finance field, as this is the first sustainable loan that BBVA arranges for a corporate in France. The RCF incorporates a pricing adjustment mechanism that links the margin to three of EDF’s sustainable KPIs: direct CO2 emissions, customers’ use of online consumption monitoring tools and electrification of its vehicle fleet.
France is at the forefront of sustainable finance in Europe. Corporates are showing a greater interest in the sustainable finance solutions currently available in the loan market. More particularly, borrowers have welcomed the possibility to add sustainable mechanisms to their general corporate purpose facilities, further reinforcing a trend towards the conversion of standard facilities into financing with a positive social and environmental impact.
Hedi Ben Salem, Head of Corporate Loans Europe & Asia, comments: “BBVA is particularly pleased with this transaction. It not only strengthens our relationship with EDF but also consolidates our position as a leading structuring bank of sustainable finance solutions in the European loan market”.
Xavier Girre, Senior Executive Vice-President, Group Finance, EDF, said: "This third ESG-Indexed RCF brings to almost 4.5 billion euros the total amount of sustainability-linked credit facilities for the EDF Group. It confirms that sustainable finance instruments are core to EDF’s financing strategy".
BBVA, a leader in sustainable finance
As a sign of its firm commitment to the fight against climate change, BBVA approved its Pledge 2025 in 2018 through which the bank will mobilize €100 billion from now until 2025 in green financing, sustainable infrastructure, social entrepreneurship and financial inclusion. The bank has the capacity, knowledge and experience to provide its clients superior advisory services for sustainable financial solutions and is playing a key role in developing this market.
BBVA has been a pioneer and the dominant player in the sustainable loan business. Today it is one of the most active organizations on the world stage in this field and the indisputable leader in Spain and Italy. In the past two years, BBVA has taken the lead on 25 sustainable finance engagements in Europe and the Americas for customers in various sectors. It also was the entity that acted on more occasions as coordinator and / or sustainable agent in 2018.
About EDF
A key player in energy transition, the EDF Group is an integrated electricity company, active in all areas of the business: generation, transmission, distribution, energy supply and trading, energy services. A global leader in low-carbon energies, the Group has developed a diversified generation mix based on nuclear power, hydropower, new renewable energies and thermal energy. The Group is involved in supplying energy and services to approximately 39.8 million customers, 29.7 million of which are in France. It generated consolidated sales of €69 billion in 2018. EDF is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.