Wednesday 19 February 2020

Britvic has secured a sustainability-linked loan worth £400m

Britvic has secured its first sustainability-linked loan, which is worth £400 million and will be paid back over a five year period.

The agreement links the soft drink producer's progress towards its 2025 sustainability targets to the cost of the debt facility, meaning the better the firm performs against these goals, the cheaper the loan will become.

The firm has committed to ensuring half of all of its plastic bottles in Great Britain and Ireland are made of recycled plastic in the next five years, as well as promising to halve its carbon emissions compared to 2017 and make 75% of its global drinks portfolio either low or no sugar.

Any consequent changes to the margin will be donated to charities and the loan period has the option of being extended by a further two years,

It was co-ordinated by Rabobank and has been provided by a group of seven lenders.

Sarah Webster, Sustainability Director at Britvic, said: "This financing agreement is part of our commitment to embed sustainability at the heart of our business and drive real behaviour change.

"We’ve made progress against our sustainability ambitions, however there’s more to do and this is a significant commercial milestone in our journey. By linking financing to our goals, we can ensure that every penny we invest is done so with our sustainability targets in mind."