STANDARD Bank said yesterday it had partnered with Woolworths Holdings (Woolies) to conclude the first sustainability-linked working capital facility in South Africa.
Woolies said this working capital’s facility structure, valued at R600 million, aligned with the retailer’s sustainability-linked financing decisions.
Feroz Koor, the group head of Sustainability at Woolworths, said: “We have committed to ensuring that all our debt going forward is ESG-linked where possible.”
Koor said Woolies now had 60 percent of its debt in line with its sustainability targets.
As the second sustainability-linked deal concluded with Standard Bank, the bank stepped in as the lender and sustainability co-ordinator to support Woolworths’ drive to ensure responsible environmental resource management of key agreed sustainability performance indicators. These included Woolworths food, private-label fashion, beauty, and home goods as well as electricity consumption in corporate stores.
“This landmark deal is the first of its kind from a TPS SA perspective,” said Justin Dhunraj, the sector head: Consumer, Transactional Products, and Services at Standard Bank.
“As the first ESG sustainability-linked deal, an extensive amount of collaboration from internal stakeholders, such as our legal, credit, and business teams, were required to draft the necessary ESG principles.”
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE