Green lending on the rise

Ida Marie Windrup advises bank lenders. Their practices are becoming greener by the minute.

She has joined BAHR three times. First as an associate, thereafter as a senior associate after a secondment to Slaughter and May, and now in March 2021 as a partner after nine years with Watson Farley & Williams in London.

- Richard Sjøqvist called me to ask when I would be coming home. That made my choice easy. And it feels like a homecoming. Both to Oslo and to BAHR, says Ida Marie Windrup, BAHR partner, before continuing:

- Loan financing has been my field throughout my career. First focused on the maritime industries at Watson Farley, and now at BAHR in relation to a broad range of industries. In Norway, I believe that BAHR is the leading adviser in this field. One reason for this is our ability to balance lender risk considerations against borrower flexibility needs. After all, collaboration between banks and their customers are at the heart of these processes, which we are there to support. Another strength is our ability to change when the market changes.

Windrup identifies the rise of sustainable finance, and especially loan financing with a link to specific sustainability objectives, as the most significant current market trend.

- This is truly exciting. It is a known fact that not every business can become green overnight. However, every business can pursue specific sustainability objectives. In order to reduce their carbon footprint, improve their gender balance or strengthen other environmental or social aspects of their business, she says.

Believes the discount will persist

At present, green loans and lending linked to sustainability objectives come at a discount. Green loans carry a lower price tag as the result of large appetite on the part of investors. The question is whether this pricing effect will peter out, as operations in conformity with sustainability objectives come to be seen as more of a hygiene factor.

- I believe we will see a pricing effect for a long time to come. It is, however, likely that all loans will in future include a sustainability-linked covenant. Current sustainability-linked loans

I believe we will see a pricing effect on financing linked to sustainability objectives for a long time to come

Ida Maria Windrup

take a fairly soft approach to the enforcement of these requirements. Meeting the defined objectives will typically get you a margin reduction, while failing to do so will result in a margin increase, says Windrup, before continuing:

- We are now seeing that sustainable finance does also have an important positioning effect on business, which also matters in a time when climate and sustainability attract more attention than ever before.

Sustainability from different angles

BAHR’s Finance group is addressing sustainability and ESG along several dimensions. Key topics include green investment financing, sustainability-linked loan financing, the EU taxonomy and other regulatory issues, compliance, as well as the licence regimes for green industries.

- It is really important for us here at BAHR to take a lead on this. We develop with our clients, and are as committed to learning from them as we are to sharing our own knowledge. That also applies in this field. This is how it has always been. This lies at the heart of BAHR, which remains the same as when I first joined in 2008, concludes Windrup.