Debt

Sustainability aspects are gaining increasing importance in the capital market. This development is driven by both the interest of our investors and the growing regulation of financial markets in the ESG sector.

We see the integration of ESG aspects into our refinancing strategy as an opportunity to further diversify our sources of capital. Sustainable financial instruments like Green, Social, or Sustainability Bonds allow us to obtain capital specifically to support our sustainability activities ("Use of Proceeds").

* These bonds were issued under grenke group’s debt issuance program.

To refinance our growing Green Economy, we established our Green Bond Framework for the first time in 2023. In line with the ICMA Green Bond Principles as the established market standard, this framework outlines the "green projects" defined by ICMA for which we will use the funds.

Our Green Economy Objects align with the following ICMA Green Project Categories:

• Renewable energy,
• Energy efficiency,
• Clean transportation,
• Pollution prevention and control,
• Sustainable water and wastewater management.

Sustainalytics, a well-respected ESG rating agency, validated our Green Bond Framework as credible, impactful, and aligned with the UN SDGs and current ICMA standards.

In 2024, we enhanced our Bond Framework to include social project categories. By combining green and social projects, the new framework is called the Sustainable Bond Framework. 

In 2024, we enhanced our Bond Framework to include social project categories. By combining green and social projects, the new framework is called the Sustainable Bond Framework. The framework is in line with the ICMA Green Bond Principles, the ICMA Social Bond Principles, as well as the ICMA Sustainability Bond Guidelines.

The Sustainable Bond Framework reflects our engagement for financing small-ticket leases with small and medium enterprise (SME) customers in countries that face social issues in labour force. With its small-ticket leases, we cover the SME investments and thus supports the development of strong and resilient SMEs, which in turn contribute to the generation and security of employment in the regions. The allocation is focused on

• Eligible microloans:
  • Lease contract between EUR 500 – 50,000,
  • all object types within our portfolio, except for Green Economy Objects in order to ensure no double-allocation

and

• Eligible SME customers:
  • Business size of SME < 250 employees and turnover ≤ EUr 50 million,
  • Located in country with unemployment rate abouve EU27 average.

As with the our Green Bond Framework, Sustainalytics validated our Sustainable Bond Framework as credible, impactful, and aligned with the four core component of the Green Bond Principles and Social Bond Principles.