Energie Baden-Württemberg (EnBW) secured the Sustainability-linked loan of the year award for its €1.5 billion ($1.8 billion) revolving credit facility signed in June 2020, the first time the German utility firm had integrated sustainability into its syndicated credit line.

The Environmental Finance Bond Awards judges said the five-year facility – which has two one-year extension options – "stands out" due to its inclusion of a social key performance indicator for grid reliability alongside more conventional environmental sustainability performance targets (SPTs) associated with carbon emissions intensity and renewable energy share of overall capacity. If EnBW achieves its specified targets, the margin on the facility will decrease. Meanwhile, the margin will increase if the firm fails to achieve its targets.

BBVA – which acted as sole sustainability coordinator on the deal – said the targets were chosen due to their transparency because EnBW has consistently reported on these metrics since 2013 and has corporate-level targets for them all for both 2020 and 2025.

The judges agreed, arguing that the facility was "very strong" as its key performance indicators were "material" to the firm and the extensive track record and publicly announced 2025 goals drives further accountability for the loan.

The transaction was "substantially oversubscribed," and all 18 banks invited to syndicate the credit line by the joint coordinators – BBVA, BayernLB, and UniCredit – committed to the revolving credit facility.