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Ahold Delhaize
Ahold Delhaize announces that it has successfully priced a €1.6 billion multi-tranche EUR transaction. The three maturities include a €400 million 2-year FRN tranche, a €500 million 7-year Green tranche, and a €700 million 12-year Sustainability-Linked tranche. The transaction marks another Ahold Delhaize bond issuance across sustainable formats, following its Sustainability Bond issuance in 2019, the €1bn Sustainability-Linked RCF launched in 2020 and refinanced to €1.5bn in 2022, the Sustainability-Linked Bond issuance in 2021 and the Green Bond issuance and Sustainability Linked Commercial Paper Program in 2023. All these ESG-labelled financings together reinforce the continued alignment of the company’s funding strategy to its sustainability strategy and overall ESG ambitions.
Green tranche
The Green bond proceeds will be applied to finance or refinance, in whole or in part, new or existing Eligible Green Projects, in accordance with the Green Finance Framework dated 6 March 2023.
The Green Finance Framework is structured in accordance with the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) Green Bond Principles (2021) and Loan Market Association (LMA) Green Loan Principles (2023) to detail the quality of the Eligible Green Projects and the governance process around green finance.
Sustainability-Linked tranche
Ahold Delhaize has published an updated Sustainability-Linked Bond Framework (“the Framework”) structured in accordance with 2023 ICMA Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles. The Sustainability-linked tranche is linked to Ahold Delhaize achieving targets in 2030 on the following KPIs:
- Reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
- Reduce absolute scope 3 FLAG and E&I (non-FLAG) GHG emissions
- Reduce food waste
Our scope 1 and 2 targets are validated by SBTi. Our scope 3 FLAG and E&I (non-FLAG) targets are currently submitted, but pending validation by SBTi. The KPIs highlight our commitment to address climate change by reducing GHG emissions from our own operations and our value chain.
The Framework has been reviewed by the external ESG agency Sustainalytics, which has provided a positive Second Party Opinion. The Framework and the relative Second Party Opinion are available here.
Jan Ernst de Groot, Chief Sustainability Officer said: “With this new addition to our Bond Framework, we aim to further reinforce our commitment to sustainability as we consider ESG financing instruments a key contributor to support our efforts, especially regarding climate transition.”
Pricing of issuance
The 2-year tranche is priced at 3-month Euribor + 30 bps, the 7-year tranche is priced at 99.297 and carries an annual coupon of 3.375 per cent, and the 12-year tranche is priced at 99.651 and carries an annual coupon of 3.875 per cent. The notes will settle on March 11, 2024 and shall be listed on Euronext Dublin. BofA Securities and Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE act as Global Coordinators, and BNP Paribas, BofA Securities, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE, ING, J.P. Morgan, Rabobank, SMBC, Société Générale and Wells Fargo Securities, as Joint Bookrunners.
