Case Study: Sydney Airport achieves sustainability-linked finance leadership with Sustainalytics

Sydney Airport pilots AU$1.4 billion sustainability-linked finance with Sustainalytics

Sydney Airport, Australia's major international gateway, sought to integrate its sustainability ambitions into its corporate funding strategy and become a leader in Australia's sustainable finance market. The challenge was that the company lacked enough eligible green assets to issue traditional green bonds. To overcome this, Sydney Airport worked with Sustainalytics and leveraged its ESG Risk Ratings product to explore innovative sustainability-linked finance options.

Sustainalytics provided a solution by licensing its ESG Risk Rating to Sydney Airport, which used the rating as the key performance indicator for its sustainability-linked debt instruments. This allowed the airport to secure a AU$1.4 billion sustainability-linked loan and a $600 million sustainability-linked bond, tying the cost of capital to improvements in its holistic ESG performance. As a result, Sydney Airport demonstrated its commitment to sustainability, won multiple industry awards for its pioneering transactions, and successfully helped develop the corporate sustainable finance market across Australia and the Pacific region.

Sydney Airport