Farms & Farm Machinery #401

News
Stockyard managing director Lachie Hart
(left) and CommBank director specialised
agribusiness solutions Andrew Quinn
FINANCE
Stockyard Group’s new deal with Commonwealth
Bank (CBA) will see it pay lower interest if it hits
emissions and safety targets
Banking on it
They say virtue is its own reward, but for Queensland
beef producer Stockyard Group, meeting targets in
emissions, worker safety and animal welfare could
pay off n the monetary sense.
The company has entered into a sustainabilitylinked
loan (SLL) with CBA, with the bank to charge
lower interest if certain metrics are met, in what
both groups are saying is a first for Australia’s
agriculture industry.
While details of the three-year loan have not
been released, CBA says the arrangements set
out clear parameters that will see the SLL stretch
towards sustainable outcomes “significantly beyond
its existing, strong baseline performance”.
“The deal ties the facility pricing to five metrics,
grouped into three sustainability performance
targets, including: reducing Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse
gas emissions; improved animal welfare
outcomes; and workplace health and safety
innovations,” says CBA.
CBA group executive for business banking Mike
Vacy-Lyle says the deal demonstrates its ability to
develop innovative finance solutions.
“We know many farmers across the country are
already adopting best practice sustainability and
environmental stewardship, and we want to partner
with agribusinesses to help them innovate and
accelerate transition plans,” he says.
The bank signed its first sustainability loan earlier
this year with Celsus, the commercial (non-clinical)
operator of Royal Adelaide Hospital.
Stockyard managing director Lachie Hart
says CBA’s new loan structure incorporates
Stockyard’s commitment to doing better for their
people, animals, environment and community.
“We have welcomed the opportunity to
participate in this innovative financing structure
and make a commitment to tie important
sustainability targets to our financing costs,” he says.
“To us, as a third-generation family business, it is
our responsibility to pass on a viable, responsible
and sustainable business for future generations and
this loan will allow us to utilise interest savings to
ensure this is the case.
“It also provides opportunities to access internationally
recognisable ESG [environmental, social
and governance] credentials to assist with securing
capital and customers in the future,” says Hart.
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12 Farms & Farm Machinery
goldacres