Sustainable Finance: FIEGE & Helaba focus on ESG criteria

FIEGE: Facts, figures and business lines at a glance

About FIEGE: The FIEGE Group is based in the Westphalian town of Greven, Germany, and ranks as one of the most innovative European leaders in logistics. FIEGE operates 139 locations in 14 countries worldwide, from its core markets in Europe all the way to Asia, employing 22,000 people. As a family-owned company, FIEGE is now in its fifth generation and is recognised as a pioneer in the field of contract logistics. Modular concepts in the areas of Logistics, Digital Services, Real Estate and Ventures form the heart of the company's operations. In 2023, the FIEGE Group generated revenues of two billion euros and has more than 4.5 million sqm of logistics space at its disposal.

How did the original idea of collaborating with Helaba to realise a sustainable financing solution in the form of an ESG Supplementary Agreement come about and how would you judge the success of the arrangement?

Michael Helming, Executive Director Corporate Finance at FIEGE:
"We held preliminary discussions with Helaba on the issue of sustainability as early as 2021. Given that sustainability is a crucial factor for us as a family-owned company, we were very eager from the outset to establish a link between our sustainability performance and the loans we had. At the time, though, we were in the process of restructuring our Corporate Sustainability team and had only just started to assess the status quo.

Then, in 2022, Sandra Achternbusch joined our firm as Executive Director Corporate Sustainability and developed our group-wide sustainability strategy. Over the past three years, our capacity to assess the FIEGE Group's impact on sustainability aspects by gathering increasingly more detailed and broader-based data has improved and this has enabled us to define a preferred roadmap for our future development."

How does the current financing arrangement complement FIEGE's sustainability strategy?

Sandra Achternbusch, Executive Director Sustainability at FIEGE:
"For FIEGE, acting and doing business sustainably are fundamental to our family-owned company's more than 150-year history and firmly embedded in our DNA. At the same time, it is essential to constantly develop the various aspects related to sustainability as well as to regularly adapt to the evolving frameworks and expectations surrounding this issue.

Our sustainability strategy, which we presented in our first sustainability report in 2023, forms the basis for this. Subsequently, we shifted our focus to defining KPIs, gathering data and drawing up medium-term targets. In future, we want to and will be measured against these objectives. As such, incorporating ESG indicators into the loan was the logical next step for us."

What hurdles and challenges did you face during the process and how did you overcome them with Helaba?

Sandra Achternbusch:
"Our sustainability report, which contained the results of a materiality analysis among other things, provided us with a solid basis, enabling Helaba to quickly gain an understanding of our key areas of action and the greatest potential with regard to FIEGE's sustainability performance. Although we had already collected data on a wide range of indicators and disclosed them in the report, not all of our medium-term targets had been completed.

That is why we decided to hold off on incorporating an ESG component when we finalised the loan at the beginning of 2023. The rendez-vous clause that was agreed proved very expedient, as it gave us the time we needed to work with our colleagues in finance and with Helaba's Sustainable Finance Advisory team in identifying the most appropriate indicators as well as breaking down our medium-term goals into specific and measurable annual interim targets."

What advice would you give to other companies wanting to realise a loan with a rendezvous clause?

In respect of your partnership with Helaba, are there any outstanding impressions you would like to share?

Michael Helming:
"Right from the word go - from our initial discussions about sustainability all the way to signing the ESG Supplementary Agreement - our experience was that Helaba is a bank that treats the whole issue of sustainability with the same degree of urgency and commitment as we do. They provided us with a tremendous amount of support, and we were always able to rely on the Sustainable Finance Advisory team's in-depth knowledge of the market and structuring capabilities. Moreover, in our finance team, we gained even broader insights into various aspects of sustainability, such as sustainability reporting and the most important sustainability KPIs, throughout the entire process."

Sandra Achternbusch:
"We are delighted to have found a solution - as ESG co-ordinator in close partnership with Helaba – that enabled us to translate our family-owned company's sustainability targets into ambitious sustainability components and to successfully integrate them into the loan. Beyond that, there is absolutely no doubt that Helaba's professional guidance has greatly benefited our entire sustainability organisation."