El Corte Inglés has renewed its Commercial Paper programme in BME’s Alternative Fixed Income Market (MARF) for a maximum outstanding of 1,200 million euros and maturities up to 24 months, which will enable the company to issue short-term debt over the next 12 months.
On this occasion, the Programme incorporates, as a novelty, its link to Sustainability, aligning itself to standards which are increasingly being requested by investors and standing out as one of the first Commercial Paper programmes including this certification.
At El Corte Inglés, Corporate Social Responsibility has formed part of the management strategy since 2017 and, from the outset, it has stood out as a factor of competitiveness and a fundamental element of the Issuer’s policy.
The new 2021-2025 Sustainability and CSR Master Plan has a major focus on sustainability as one of the strategic vectors of the future. The new Plan proposes a five-year duration focusing its proposals on Sustainability, understood in terms of its three facets: environmental, social and economic or good governance (“ESG”).
To calibrate sustainability, the Group has chosen the following two Key Performance Indicators (KPI):
- Retail centres and platforms of the El Corte Inglés Group with the Zero Waste programme implemented in Spain and Portugal: the Company’s objective is to obtain the AENOR Zero Waste certificate for retail centres and logistics platforms of the El Corte Inglés Group in financial year 2022.
- Number of sustainable stock-keeping units (SKU): El Corte Inglés’ target for the indicator based on the number of sustainable SKU is to increase the same by between 4% and 5% per annum, reaching 116.980 references at the end of financial year 2021.
PKF Attest continues acting as Registered Advisor and, for this occasion, has also acted as sustainability agent. G-Advisory has been the certification agency of the Company’s Regulatory framework of reference for Sustainability-Linked financing. CaixaBank has been designated as the Paying Agent and Cuatrecasas acted as the legal Advisor. The Programme has six Dealers: PKF Attest, Bred Banque Populaire, Banco Santander, Norbolsa, Banco Sabadell and CaixaBank.
Founded in 1935, El Corte Inglés is a leading figure in retail sales in Europe and a reference in Spain’s retail sales. As of year-end, the 28th of February of 2021, the Group had revenues of 10.432 million of euros and an adjusted EBITDA of €141,73 millions.
The Company has a BB+ rating with negative outlook by S&P Global Ratings.
Commercial Papers are an efficient source of funding
Commercial Papers are short-term money-market securities used as a funding source by financial institutions, as well as governments, supranational agencies and mid and large corporations.
For corporate issuers, Commercial Papers are an extremely efficient funding source, that is complementary to banking facilities and credit lines. It is an efficient working capital solution via Debt Capital Markets.
Commercial Papers are issued under a shelf programme with a predetermined maximum outstanding size, and that are renewable annually (or every 3 years for STEP label). CPs may be issued at a discount or at a premium, they may bear fixed or floating rate interest, although they most usually carry an implicit coupon.
Maturity of Notes ranges from 1 to 364 days for ECP (European Commercial Paper Programmes), up to 24 months for Spanish Pagarés and up to 36 months for Italian Cambiali Finanziarie.
Commercial Papers are multi-currency instruments that can be issued in different currencies, predominantly in EUR, USD, CHF and GBP. They have a minimum denomination of €100K and are intended for wholesale institutional investors, both national and international.
