Australian fund manager ISPT has reached a significant milestone in its sustainability-focused financing strategy with the arrangement of a $1.5 billion sustainably-linked syndicated term loan.
This achievement marks one of the largest for any Australian real estate fund manager and brings ISPT’s Sustainability-Linked Loans (SLLs) to a total of $5.75 billion — cementing its position as a leader in sustainable finance.
The transaction, also one of the largest real estate credit deals in Australia in recent years, involved the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), ANZ, Westpac, and HSBC as joint-mandated lead arrangers, bookrunners and joint sustainability coordinators.
The $1.5 billion facility is split evenly across five- and seven-year tenors with 20 lenders participating in the transaction.
Additionally, ISPT secured an additional $400 million in bilateral SLL facilities and refinanced $1 billion, bringing ISPT Core Fund’s total debt package to $6.3 billion.
Steven Peters, Chief Sustainability Officer at ISPT, highlighted the significance of this financing arrangement, stating: “Connecting our debt facilities through SLLs that are aligned with our ESG Strategy is another way that we hold ourselves accountable for delivering on our sustainability commitments.
“We believe that this transaction reinforces ISPT’s approach to embedding responsible investment into every facet of our operations.”
The SLLs will be tied to ISPT’s existing sustainability performance targets, which include key metrics in emissions intensity, waste reduction, water consumption, and labour certification, aligned with the key pillars of ISPT’s ESG framework, including climate change, resource efficiency, and supply chain.
This marks ISPT’s third SLL, following the restructuring of the ISPT Retail Australia Property Trust’s (IRAPT) bank facilities as SLLs in September 2021 and the completion of a $2.8 billion SLL for the ISPT Core Fund in April 2021.