Global investment firm Carlyle has announced a €2.3bn ESG-linked credit facility for its European private equity and real estate platform, to support the firm’s 30% board diversity target, and to address climate change and achieve better ESG outcomes through training.

Earlier this year, Carlyle secured the largest ESG-linked private equity credit facility in the US for $4.1bn which was the industry’s first facility to focus exclusively on advancing board diversity. The European facility builds on this example and reaffirms Carlyle’s commitment to working alongside its portfolio companies to achieve its 30% board diversity goal, with near-term step-up targets.

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In addition to diversity, this new European facility is linked to two other important sustainability goals such as tackling climate change by having more accurate and comprehensive measurements of greenhouse gas emissions across all portfolio companies, and improving ESG outcomes through better governance by providing ESG-competent board training for all Carlyle board directors.

Kewsong Lee, CEO at Carlyle, said: ‘For many years Carlyle has been driving significant progress on board diversity in our portfolio companies on a global basis, recognising the correlation with strong financial decisions and performance. This European ESG-linked credit facility closely follows that of our Americas private equity platform, and together represent a significant moment in Carlyle’s strategy to reinforce our commitment to achieving greater diverse board-level representation.’

Megan Starr, Global Head of Impact, said: ‘We are proud that Carlyle is a pioneer in integrating ESG considerations into the financing arrangements of portfolio companies in Europe and the US. In aggregate this represents approximately $10 billion in financings for our US and European private equity funds and illustrates an important milestone in our journey to align successful investment and sustainability outcomes, and deliver long-term value and positive change for all stakeholders.’

Source: Market Screener

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