Barloworld, a South African car dealer and mining equipment supplier, is marketing the country’s first debt sale linked to gender diversity goals.
The Johannesburg-based company plans to raise up to 1 billion rand ($61 million) in three- and five-year bonds, with bids linked to targets for women in its leadership structures, as well as the participation of black women-owned businesses in its supply chain .
Holders of Barloworld’s floating-rate bonds maturing in December will have the option to roll over to the new debt, Kate Rushton, a credit analyst at Rand Merchant Bank in Johannesburg, said in a note to clients.
The sale, scheduled for August 17 via auction, comes amid a global push to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The global volume of new debt related to sustainable development and social goals issued this year is already close to the level for all of 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
To date, the issuance of so-called gender bonds has mainly been carried out by development banks and corporations, and sovereign issuers have not yet entered this corner of the market. The South African government has been considering a gender sovereign bond, but its plans have yet to materialize.
In January, Colombia’s Mibanco Banco de la Microempresa SA issued a $28.4 million bond linked to gender goals. Tanzania’s NMB Bank Plc has sold shilling-denominated bonds to raise money to provide affordable credit to businesses owned or controlled by women.
The Asian Development Bank, Ecuador’s Banco Pichincha, Singapore’s Impact Investment Exchange and the International Finance Corporation have also issued gender bonds this year.
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