Kellogg Company has successfully priced a EUR300 million eight-year Sustainability Bond with an interest coupon of 0.50 per cent per annum, a first for the global food company.
“Kellogg has always been a purpose-driven organisation – it’s in our DNA,” says Steve Cahillane, Kellogg’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Our founder, WK Kellogg, was an early conservationist, a leading philanthropist and an original wellbeing visionary. With this legacy, we’ve inherited his commitment.”
The bond transaction is in line with Kellogg’s newly introduced Sustainability Bond Framework, which facilitates the company’s use of sustainable capital markets to finance or refinance eligible projects that align with its commitments. Kellogg’s Sustainability Bond Framework has been reviewed by Sustainalytics, a second-party opinion provider and is aligned with the Green Bond Principles and the Social Bond Principles.
The net proceeds from the Sustainability Bond will support significant progress already made against our Better Days commitment to address the interconnected issues of wellbeing, hunger relief and climate resiliency to create Better Days for three billion people and the planet by 2030. An amount equal to the net proceeds will be used to finance or refinance projects within one or more of these categories: food security and sustainable food systems, renewable energy, energy efficiency, circular economy, environmentally sustainable management of living natural resources and land use, green buildings, and sustainable water and wastewater management.
“Sustainability is an enabler to balanced growth,” says Cahillane. “It supports our bottom line through cost savings initiatives and risk mitigation, while supporting our commercial strategies to deliver topline growth.”
The joint book-running managers for the offering are Coöperatieve Rabobank UA, ING Bank NV and Morgan Stanley & Co International plc.
