Orsted has signed a €2bn sustainability-linked syndicated revolving credit facility, which will be used for general corporate purposes.
The Danish energy company said the five-year agreement, which has two one-year extension options, replaces an existing, undrawn €1.4bn syndicated revolving credit facility entered into in December 2015.
Nordea has acted as sole coordinating mandated lead arranger and bookrunner, documentation agent and sustainability coordinator of the facility.
Banks also supporting the facility as mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners are Bank of America, Barclays Bank, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Jersey Branch, Rabobank, Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Danske Bank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Handelsbanken, HSBC, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, MUFG, National Westminster Bank Plc, and SEB, and with Nordea also acting as Agent.
To help drive the efforts to meet Orsted’s sustainability targets, the facility’s interest margin will be adjusted up or down based on the company’s ability to meet two pre-defined strategic sustainability targets on an annual basis.
The first target is Orsted’s science-based target of reducing the carbon emissions from its energy generation and operations (scopes one and two) to 10 grams CO2e per kilowatt-hour by 2025.
This is the company’s main lever for achieving carbon neutrality in 2025, and which is aligned with a 1.5° Celsius climate scenario.
The second target is Orsted’s taxonomy-aligned green investments linked to its announced approximately Dkr350bn (€47bn) investment programme for 2020-2027.
To meet the associated reporting requirement, Orsted will start reporting according to the new EU taxonomy, which has been created for the purpose of supporting the green transition.
Orsted chief financial officer Marianne Wiinholt said: “At Orsted, we’re very committed to contributing to driving the green transition.
“We’ve been issuing senior bonds and hybrid capital in green format since 2017, and we now embrace the opportunity to take the natural step together with our banks to incorporate our green ambitions as sustainability-linked performance targets into our banking facilities.”