The SOCIMI Merlin Properties has completed the conversion of all its outstanding senior bonds, representing an amount of more than €4 billion, listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, into “green bonds”.
Specifically, as reported to the CNMV, these are seven bonds of between €300 million and €850 million each, maturing between 2023 and 2034. In April, the company announced that it intended to retroactively allocate an amount equivalent to the principal amount of each series to eligible green assets in accordance with its Green Financing Framework.
The SOCIMI engaged Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer as advisors in this process. With this new green financing programme, Merlin aligns its financing strategy with sustainability objectives for both the proposed conversion of outstanding bonds and future financings.
Freshfields advised Merlin Properties with a team led by counsel Joe Amann, who was supported by associates Chelsey Kaka, Javier González Egaña and Chloé Clavell.
The firm recentñy advised Inmobiliaria Colonial on the successful conversion of all of the Colonial group’s outstanding senior bonds into green bonds, as reported by Legal Dealmaker on February 17.