Pandora Issues Rare Sustainability-Linked Bond Tied to Gender Diversity Goals

In an unusual transfer, Pandora has change into one in all just a few world corporations to lift debt in opposition to its skill to satisfy gender variety targets.

On Thursday, the Copenhagen-based jewelry big issued a €500 million ($540 million) sustainability-linked bond on Eire’s foremost inventory trade. Like many different corporations, Pandora linked the debt to its aim of attaining a 36 p.c discount in carbon emissions by 2028 — nevertheless it’s additionally tied to its gender variety goal of getting 44 p.c ladies in management by the identical deadline.

If Pandora fails to satisfy its targets, it’s going to face a penalty of roughly €5 million on the mortgage. The fines are cut up 60 p.c (€3 million) for carbon emission targets and 40 p.c (€2 million) for gender variety targets. At the moment, all of Pandora’s financing — together with two bonds, a revolving credit score facility and a mortgage from the Nordic Funding Financial institution — is linked to sustainability.

Throughout style and different industries, comparable sustainability-linked monetary mechanisms have gotten an increasingly popular source of capital for climate-friendly initiatives. Corporations like Chanel, VF Corp, Burberry, and Adidas have all taken on debt tied to environmental initiatives lately however just a few corporations — in sectors like personal fairness and power — have tied their bonds to gender targets.

However all these monetary devices have additionally attracted criticism. Corporations set their very own targets, which regularly aren’t that difficult, critics say. In some circumstances, they’re already near or have achieved their targets, making a number of the related threat irrelevant.

At the moment, Pandora’s management is 34 p.c feminine. Its emissions have come down 27 p.c since 2019 and are on observe to say no 50 p.c by 2030, chief monetary officer Anders Boyer mentioned.

“[We’ve had] fairly good traction up to now however as [is the case] in lots of elements of company life, it will get incrementally tougher to cut back carbon emission and get to gender parity,” Boyer mentioned.