Latham & Watkins Advises BayWa on €1.7 Billion ESG-linked Syndicated Facilities Agreement

Latham & Watkins LLP advised BayWa AG (BayWa) on a syndicated credit financing of €1.7 billion. The facilities agreement is the first in the company’s history linked to an ESG rating issued by the rating agency MSCI ESG Research. MSCI ESG Research has awarded the BayWa Group an “AA” rating. The syndicated facilities agreement is linked to environmental, social and corporate governance criteria (ESG) and comes with a three-year term offering two extension options of one year each. The syndicated facilities agreement was coordinated by DZ BANK AG, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg and UniCredit Bank AG as bookrunners.

BayWa, based in Munich, is a globally active group with the core segments of, energy, agriculture, and building materials, as well as the development segment innovation & digitalisa-tion. As a global player it develops leading projects and solutions for the basic human needs of food, energy, and building. The company employs approximately 21,000 people and generated around €17 billion in revenue in 2020.

Latham & Watkins regularly advises BayWa on transactions, most recently at the end of 2020, on the capital increase at BayWa r.e. renewable energy GmbH, the largest transaction in BayWa’s company history.

The Latham team was co-led by Munich partner Thomas Weitkamp and counsel Ludwig Zesch; with corporate partner Rainer Traugott and associates Stephan Hufnagel and Hendrik Ley; Madrid partner Fernando Colomina and associates Pablo Alarcón, Aitor Errasti, and Blanca Vázquez de Castro; and Milan partner Antongiulio Scialpi and associate Simona Di Marcantonio. Advice was also provided on tax matters by Munich counsel Ulf Kieker, Madrid partner Iván Rabanillo, with associates Juan Rodríguez and Ana Serrano; and on environ-ment, land & resources matters by associate Leticia Sitges.