Atos has raised €800 million ($916m) in sustainability-linked bonds.
The French technology company announced the placement of its first sustainability-linked bond issue with an eight-year maturity and one percent coupon.
Atos said the coupon – the annual interest rate paid on a bond – of the last three years will be unchanged if the company reduces its annual GreenHouse Gas CO2 emissions (Scopes 1, 2 & 3) by 50 percent in 2025 compared to 2019.
The company said the proceeds of the bonds will be used for ‘general corporate purposes.' Atos has committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2035, but is aiming for 2028. In 2020, around 55 percent of the electricity consumed by Atos worldwide came from decarbonized sources.
BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan are acting as Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners of the bond issuance. Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Société Générale, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Banco Santander, BofA Securities, Commerzbank, Crédit Industriel et Commercial, ING Bank, Natixis, SMBC Nikko Capital Markets, Unicredit Bank and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as Joint Bookrunners. Rothschild & Co is acting as financial advisor to Atos and White & Case is acting as legal advisor.
Sustainability-linked financing is quickly becoming a common trend amongst data center and telco firms. The likes of NTT, Aligned, Airtrunk, KPN, Baidu, and Nabiax all raised new funds or converted existing debt to include interest rates tied to sustainability and ESG goals in the last 12 months.
