Standard Bank, the biggest bank in Africa by assets, recently announced that sustainability performance targets set as part of a facility arranged for Motus in June 2024 have been finalised.
Motus is a multi-national provider of automotive mobility solutions and vehicle products and services, with a leading market presence in South Africa as well as a select international offering in the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and Southern and East Africa.
The two corporates initially collaborated in 2022 when Standard Bank arranged a syndicated ZAR 6 billion sustainability-linked facility and a ZAR 800 million sustainability-linked working capital facility. At the time, the facilities were a first for the sector as a major step in linking sustainability to financing.
In June 2024, the bank jointly arranged the refinancing and upsizing of the multi-currency syndicated loan facility for Motus, to the value of GBP 150 million. The recent refinanced facility incorporates all material aspects of the Loan Market Association’s (LMA) sustainability linked loan principles which permits the facility to be classified as a sustainability linked loan.
The LMA was formed in December 1996 and is based in the UK with the primary task of developing the secondary loan market in Europe by creating industry best practices and standard documentation.
“As a bank that prides itself on taking sustainability seriously, we are proud to be partnering with Motus on financing that carries impact and meets sustainability targets which we are actively working to drive across the jurisdictions where we have a footprint,” says Anneke Lund, Executive for Sustainable Finance at Standard Bank.
Earlier this year, Standard Bank announced that it had reached ZAR 149 billion of its ZAR 250 billion commitment to sustainable finance by the end of 2026.
“Grounded in our purpose of Mobility for Good, integrating sustainability in our business has been a strategic focus for Motus since listing six years ago. The new sustainability-linked facility introduces a heightened focus on social aspects, with a target set to amplify our community development impact, in addition to our gender and environmental targets,” says Berenice Francis, Head: Risk, Sustainability and Human Capital from Motus.
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