AGRIBUSINESS company Wilmar International : F34 0% has secured a US$100 million sustainability-linked loan with a tenure of three years from Maybank, said both companies in a joint media release on Thursday (May 9).
Sustainability-linked loans are debt instruments where the interest rate is stepped up or down, depending on whether the borrower is able to achieve a set of pre-determined sustainability key performance indicators.
Specific to the US$100 million sustainability-linked loan taken out by Wilmar, its targets include internal key performance indicators as well as external benchmarking standards, one of which is its continued inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) World Index.
Wilmar is the only Singapore-incorporated company under the category of food products to be listed in the DJSI World Index, and has maintained its inclusion for three consecutive years since November 2021, read the statement.
Wilmar’s deputy chief operating officer and chief financial officer Charles Loo said that this sustainability-linked loan would allow the company to further leverage its progress in sustainability to add resilience to its capital position.
Gregory Seow, head of global banking for Singapore at Maybank said that he expects the momentum for sustainability-linked loans to pick up in 2024 as these instruments serve a wider base of issuers in South-east Asia.
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One key catalyst would be when climate-related disclosures become mandatory for all public listed companies in Singapore from 2025 followed by for large non-listed firms two years later, he added.
Shares of Wilmar fell 1.3 per cent, or S$0.04, to close at S$3.17 on Thursday.
