Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises the Managers on Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize’s first EUR 600 million Sustainability-Linked Bonds

Clifford Chance has advised the Managers on the issuance by Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize's ("KAD") of its first Sustainability-Linked Bonds with a total principal value of EUR 600 million and a maturity of 9 years. The syndicate of Managers consisted of BNP Paribas, BofA Securities, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE, J.P. Morgan and Sociéte Générale Corporate & Investment Banking as Joint Bookrunners, and ABN AMRO, ING, KBC Bank, Rabobank and Wells Fargo Securities as Co-Managers. J.P. Morgan and Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking acted as Sustainability linked bond structuring agents.

The Sustainability-Linked Bonds will be issued in accordance with KAD's Sustainability-Linked Bond Framework and contain an interest rate step-up that is linked to the achievement by KAD of two Sustainability Performance Targets: the reduction by 2025 of (i) certain CO2e emissions with 29% (from a 2018 baseline) and (ii) food waste with 32% (from a 2016 baseline). The Bonds priced on 11 March 2021 and settlement will take place on 18 March 2021.

The transaction follows the closing of KAD's EUR 1 billion Sustainability-Linked Revolving Credit Facility in December 2020 on which Clifford Chance also advised (details here) and forms part of a large number of ESG-related transactions that Clifford Chance has advised on recently.

The Clifford Chance team that advised the Managers on this transaction was led by Tineke Kothe and furthermore consisted of Tom Smeele, Ena Talić, Nolan Groenland and Robin Houtveen.