Amplifon boosts its flexibility and liquidity by signing a new €300m revolving credit facility
The business and financial strategy of the Italy-based hearing retail group Amplifon has built-in commitments to ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) objectives, and meeting them will be boosted by being able to count on a new €300m sustainability-linked revolving credit facility.
Signed on the first day of June, and granted by a bevy of banks (BNP Paribas (Milan Branch), CaixaBank S.A. (Succursale Italiana), Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (Milan Branch), and UniCredit S.p.A), the new facility will, says Amplifon, provide greater financial flexibility, further strengthen its solid liquidity position, diversify sources of funding, and extend its average debt maturity. It is a three-year term with an option of an additional two years at the company’s discretion.
Amplifon has eight ESG ratings
The facility comes on the back of years of Amplifon ESG initiatives and continual reporting of its sustainability performance (since 2016), the group shifting its focus from past to future in 2020, defining its first Sustainability Plan, Listening Ahead, which has specific sustainability goals and targets within four areas of commitment: Product & Service Stewardship: listening to our customers; people Empowerment: listening to our people; community Impact: listening to local communities and future generations; ethical behaviour: listening to the context and the environment in which Amplifon operates.
Amplifon, a member of the MIB ESG Index of the Italian Stock Exchange since October 2021 (Italian listed companies with best-in-class ESG practices), sets goals in line with ithe UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Some of the group’s specific ESG targets are linked to the new credit facility. Amplifon currently has eight ESG ratings, most of them unsolicited.
The cost of this “sustainability-linked” facility may go up or down according to whether the specifically-linked ESG targets are met. Nevertheless, Amplifon points out, the use of this kind of facility’s proceeds is “general purpose” and not linked to a specific investment in one particular social or green investment. The company need not draw on the revolving credit facility at all, but it allows Amplifon to borrow money primarily for funding working capital needs and continuing operations, and represents a key boost to financial flexibility and liquidity.
Source: Amplifon
