July 29 (SeeNews) - Croatian holding company Meritus Ulaganja [ZSE:MRUL] said on Friday it issued the country's first sustainability-linked corporate bond worth 300 million kuna ($41 million/40 million euro) and having maturity of five years.
The company has pledged to cut its carbon emissions 25% and to raise the share of women in its management teams to 51%, Meritus Ulaganja said in a filing to the Zagreb bourse.
It the company fails to achieve these goals, the investors in the bond will be paid additional interest of 0.75 percentage points above the issue's interest rate of 4.25%.
The subscription was held on July 26.
The bond issue will be listed on the Zagreb Stock Exchange no later than August 3, Meritus Ulaganja said.
At least 70% of the proceeds of the bond will be used for acquisitions in the BPTO and for investments in new and existing subsidiaries, Meritus said earlier in the issue prospectus. The rest will be used to finance the company's regular operations. Over the past five years, the M+ Group has made 15 acquisitions and secured a diversified portfolio of clients consisting of technology, energy, logistics, and e-commerce companies, consumer goods companies, financial institutions, and European and global telecoms. It has a language portfolio of 31 languages.
Meritus Ulaganja's shares last traded on the Zagreb bourse on February 24, closing 9.09% lower at 1,000 kuna.
Meritus Ulaganja is the parent company of business process and technology outsourcing (BPTO) services provider M+ Group. Zagreb-based M+ Group operates also in Germany, Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, the UK and the U.S.
(1 euro = 7.520 Croatian kuna)