Sanofi Pioneers Sustainable Finance in the Pharmaceutical Industry With the Signing of its Two First Sustainability-Linked Revolving Credit Facilities

Originally published on sanofi.com. Sanofi U.S. ranked No. 28 on The Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list in 2020.

Sanofi pioneers sustainable finance in the pharmaceutical industry with the signing of its two first sustainability-linked revolving credit facilities

  • Sanofi has successfully refinanced and extended two syndicated credit facilities for a total amount of €8 billion.
  • Sanofi is the first large biopharmaceutical company to integrate environmental and social features in sustainability-linked credit facilities.

PARIS – December 9, 2020 – Sanofi pioneers sustainable finance in the pharmaceutical industry with the signing of its two first sustainability-linked revolving credit facilities.

These two facilities are part of Sanofi’s strategy to secure its long-term financing sources:

  • A new €4 billion revolving credit facility expiring December 2025, with two extension options of one year each,
  • An amendment of the €4 billion revolving credit facility expiring in December 2021 with the addition of two extension options of one year each.

Both revolving credit facilities (“RCFs”) incorporate an adjustment mechanism that links the cost of the facilities to the achievement of annual targets for two selected sustainable KPIs: contribution to Polio eradication and carbon footprint reduction.

Committed to fully embed sustainability in its business strategy (Play to Win), Sanofi decided to link part of its long-term financing to the fulfilment of two of Sanofi’s core commitments between now and 2025:

  • Contribute to eradicate Polio, maintaining Sanofi’s key involvement in the very final step of the challenging journey towards eradication.
  • Achieve a 30% reduction of its carbon footprint (scope 1 & 2) aligned with its validated SBTI goal (55% reduction by 2030 vs 2019), following the 1.5°C scenario.

The innovative character of the transaction lies on Sanofi’s commitment to invest yearly a fixed contribution to both Sanofi’s Espoir Foundation and Sanofi Planet Mobilization program to fund social and environmentally responsible projects and maximize its impact on the two objectives. In case Sanofi achieves its yearly sustainability performance targets, Sanofi’s lending banks will support this contribution through a discount margin.

 “We took the opportunity of the refinancing of our €8 billion lines to link our facilities to our sustainability performance,” said Jean-Baptiste de Chatillon, Chief Financial Officer at Sanofi. “With this first sustainability-inked transaction, we are very proud to pioneer the sphere of Sustainable Finance for the pharmaceutical industry. Doing well and doing good at the same time is part of our DNA. We are convinced that this marks the first milestone of a long and promising journey to keep demonstrating the mobilization of all people at Sanofi towards sustainability”.

 “We are very pleased to begin our journey in Sustainable Finance with these two core facilities,” said Laurent Lhopitallier, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility Coordination and Reporting at Sanofi. “Being the first supplier of IPV1 for GAVI2 countries, Sanofi has historically played a critical role from the very beginning in the fight for Polio eradication which is considered as a top priority by the World Health Organization. Far from being reached, the final step is now critical, and Sanofi has made significant commitments to make this “end game” possible. As climate change is intimately linked to health, Sanofi as a healthcare company has an important role to play, therefore we are committed to act to reduce our Greenhouse gas emissions along our value chain”.

The refinancing was structured with BNP Paribas as syndication coordinator and Societe Generale and UniCredit Bank AG each as sustainability coordinator.

1 Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccine

2 GAVI is an international organization created in 2000 to improve access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world’s poorest countries – https://www.gavi.org/

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