Triton secures €1.45bn syndicated ESG-linked facility

Greg Gille and Harriet Matthews
10 December 2021

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Triton has secured a €1.45bn ESG-linked financing facility arranged by RBS for its Triton V fund.

Acting as the lead arranger, facility agent and sustainability coordinator, RBS committed EUR 322.5m to the facility alongside four other lenders.

Triton registered its fifth flagship fund, Triton Fund V, in March 2018. The fund had a target of EUR 4bn and held a final close in December 2018 with EUR 5.2bn in committed capital. The fund focuses on European mid-market buyout opportunities, with a main focus on northern Europe. Sector-wise, it is looking for companies in the industrial, business services, consumer and healthcare sectors.

In a statement, RBS and Triton said the facility was expected to aid "the delivery of Triton's sustainability objectives across all portfolio companies, and had helped formalise its ESG programme". They added that the structure would act as a precedent for other Triton funds when it comes to ESG targets and implementation.

As recently explored by Unquote, ESG-linked fund financing facilities are becoming a prominent – and well publicised – tool in the ESG toolbox for GPs and lenders. Triton is the latest in a string of mainstream GPs – beyond impact or sustainability investors – to have announced ESG-linked loans for their funds this year, including Waterland and CapMan.

Most recently, Carlyle joined the ranks of GPs that have arranged such facilities for their European strategies in September, announcing a EUR 2.3bn facility for its European funds, with targets focused on diversity at board level, as well as greenhouse gas reporting and governance outcomes.

Such facilities are not wholly new to Carlyle, however; the GP took a USD 4.1bn ESG-linked credit line for its US strategies in 2020, while its AlpInvest division took an ESG-linked facility for AlpInvest Co-Investment Fund VIII in May 2021.

In June 2020, prior to the recent raft of facilities announced in the European market, EQT announced that it had taken out what was then the largest ever ESG-linked subscription credit facility to date in the PE market: the GP took a EUR 2.3bn facility with a EUR 5bn upper limit for its PE business line.