Unigrains optimizes bank financing through an amend & extend of its €250 million RCF

Maturity extended to end 2027
€50 million optional additional envelope
Integration of extra-financial performance criteria to advance the ESG approach

Paris, September 4^th, 2024 – Unigrains, the investor-partner of agri-food and agro-industry companies, optimized the conditions of its bank financing through an amend & extend of its €250 million revolving credit facility (RCF). Beyond the two-year extension of maturity, to end 2027, the new agreement includes a €50 million optional additional envelope and contributes to Unigrains’ ESG approach through the integration of extra-financial performance criteria that can impact the margin, thus qualifying the RCF as a “revolving credit facility linked to sustainable development”.

This operation, in continuity of the 2017 implementation of the RCF and its 2020 renegotiation, provides Unigrains with additional financial resources, beyond its €964 million of equity capital and co-investment instruments, thus enabling it to accelerate its growth trajectory and best support the development of agri-food companies as a long-term, active and responsible investor.

Crédit Agricole Ile-de-France acted as agent and coordinator with Société Générale, Caisse d’Epargne Ile-de-France, La Banque Postale, LCL and Arkéa as co-arrangers. Caisse d’Epargne Ile-de-France, through BPCE’s Green Hub, acted as ESG coordinator.

Revolving credit linked to sustainable development (Sustainability-Linked Loan)

Now qualified as a revolving credit linked to sustainable development (Sustainability-Linked Loan – SLL), three extra-financial performance criteria that can impact the margin are integrated, for the first time, into the bank financing. These indicators aim to further advance Unigrains’ ESG approach through its Responsible Investment Policy as well as its support of the Energy Transition and the formalization of ESG Governance of its partner companies.

Unigrains was advised by AuxinéA, a consulting and service provider created within the Group in 2021.

Kristell Guillou, Chief Financial Officer of Unigrains, declared: “The success of this operation is a testament to the trust of our financial partners – unchanged since 2020 – and we thank them. Given its flexibility, this instrument is particularly suited to Unigrains’ business model as an equity investor and to its development strategy. We are also pleased to have carried out this operation with the support of AuxinéA, which demonstrated its technical and legal know-how and coordinated all stakeholders efficiently and effectively.”

Ari Levine, HR-CSR-Communication Director of Unigrains, added: “We aimed to set an example given that we encourage our partner companies to carry out the same ESG reflections in their own financing projects. Just like the rapprochement of ESG and HR policies through the integration of extra-financial criteria in our profit-sharing agreement, the SLL is a mechanism that unites, aligns and involves our teams around collective, responsible objectives. We will continue to place ESG at all levels of the company, because, at Unigrains, ESG is everyone’s business.”

Maxime Vandoni, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Unigrains, concluded: “This operation illustrates the confidence of our financial partners in our strategy and in our vision. Unigrains will, now more than ever, fulfill its role as a reference investor-partner and sector specialist, supporting agri-food companies by financing both their transitions and their medium-long term growth projects.”