ANZ has priced a 5-year JPY10 billion Sustainability-Linked Private Placement for Louis Dreyfus Company B.V. (LDC). This move solidifies ANZ's position in the Japanese Private Placement market, having delivered three of four Sustainability Linked Bonds for offshore issuers since 2020.
Louis Dreyfus Company is a global merchant and processor of agricultural goods, operating in over 100 countries. The company's activities cover the entire value chain across various business lines, including grains and oilseeds, sugar, coffee, rice, juice, and cotton.
In this transaction, ANZ acted as Sole Placement Agent and Sustainability Structuring Advisor. The deal includes a sustainability-linked pricing mechanism tied to reduction targets for four environmental KPIs: CO2 emissions, energy consumption, water usage, and solid waste sent to landfill.
Sherrie Banks, ANZ Head of Food, Beverage & Agriculture in Europe stated: “LDC has a longstanding commitment to producing and supplying essential food and agricultural products for the world while minimizing its environmental impact."
She further added: “We’re pleased to have delivered an end-to-end funding and hedging solution tailored to LDC’s requirements and ambitious sustainability goals. More broadly, we are seeing the Japanese private placement market becoming a repeat source of liquidity from a high-quality investor base with a focus on ESG.”