PARIS: L’Oréal has successfully priced its inaugural public bond offering for an aggregate nominal amount of €3.0 billion.
The offering is composed of three tranches:
- A €1,000 million 2-year fixed rate bond paying a coupon of 0,375% p.a.
- A €750 million 2-year floating rate note and
- A €1,250 million 4.25-year Sustainability-Linked bond paying a coupon of 0,875% p.a.
The new issuance has benefitted from an exceptional market reception with total demand of €10.7 billion, just over 3.5 times the combined volume of the offering.
The Sustainability-Linked bond is aligned with L’Oréal’s newly introduced Sustainability-Linked Financing Framework. The framework has been independently assessed by the rating provider Sustainalytics who published a Second-Party Opinion.
The Sustainability-Linked bond is tied to L’Oréal’s achievement of three Sustainability Performance Targets:
- Absolute Scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions at all L’Oréal operated sites reaching zero by 31st December 2025
- Reduction of Scopes 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions on a “cradle-to-shelf” scope by 14% per sold product by 2025 from a 2021 base year
- 50% of the Group’s plastics used in packaging will be either from recycled or biobased sources by 2025.
L’Oréal will report annually in its Universal Registration Document on the level of achievement of the Key Performance Indicators.
The Sustainability-Linked Financing Framework and the Second-Party Opinion are available at www.loreal-finance.com.
The net proceeds of the bonds will be used for general corporate purposes including repayment of the short-term debt related to L’Oréal’s buyback of 4% of its own shares from Nestlé announced on 7 December 2021.
The bonds, which are rated AA (Stable) by S&P and Aa1 (Stable) by Moody’s, will be admitted to trading on Euronext Paris from the settlement date, which is scheduled to take place on 29 March 2022, subject to the approval of the prospectus by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers.
BNP Paribas and J.P. Morgan are acting as Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners of the bond issuance. Citi, Crédit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Natixis, and Société Générale are acting as Joint Bookrunners. BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, and J.P. Morgan are acting as ESG Structuring advisors.
For over 110 years, L’Oréal, the world’s leading beauty player, has devoted itself to one thing only: fulfilling the beauty aspirations of consumers around the world. Our purpose, to create the beauty that moves the world, defines our approach to beauty as inclusive, ethical, generous and committed to social and environmental sustainability. With our broad portfolio of 35 international brands and ambitious sustainability commitments in our L’Oréal for the Future programme, we offer each and every person around the world the best in terms of quality, efficacy, safety, sincerity and responsibility, while celebrating beauty in its infinite plurality.
With 85,400 committed employees, a balanced geographical footprint and sales across all distribution networks
(e-commerce, mass market, department stores, pharmacies, hair salons, branded and travel retail), in 2021 the Group generated sales amounting to 32.28 billion euros. With 20 research centers across 11 countries around the world and a dedicated Research and Innovation team of over 4,000 scientists and 3,000 tech professionals, L’Oréal is focused on inventing the future of beauty and becoming a Beauty Tech powerhouse.