Navigator Gas in $200 million financing that includes gender diversity targets
Written by Nick Blenkey
Navigator Gas CEO Mads Peter Zacho: “We are committed to improving gender diversity across the business in a sector that has traditionally been male dominated.”
By now, we’re used to the idea of green loans tied to things like environmental performance. Now, liquefied gas carrier specialist Navigator Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NVGS) has entered into a financing arrangement that incentivizes gender diversity. It reports that on March 20, Navigator Gas LLC entered into a $200 million term loan facility that includes a sustainability-linked margin adjustment with two key performance indicators (“KPIs”). One KPI is linked to fleet environmental criteria, the second is linked to percentage targets for women in leadership roles at Navigator each year, with an initial target of 22% by the end of 2023, increasing year by year to a final target of 35% of women in leadership roles by 2028.
“We are committed to improving gender diversity across the business in a sector that has traditionally been male dominated,” said Navigator CEO Mads Peter Zacho. “As far as we are aware, this facility agreement linked to gender diversity is one of the first of its kind in the sector, and we are enthusiastic about achieving our targets supporting wider change in the industry.”
Prior to his appointments as CEO of Navigator in August 2022, Zacho was the head of industry transition at the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping and before that, held several senior roles at shipping businesses, including as CEO of J. Lauritzen A/S and CFO for TORM Plc and Svitzer.
The agreement was reached with a group of banks that includes, among others, Nordea Bank Abp, ABN AMRO Bank N.V., and BNP Paribas S.A.
ABN AMRO Bank N.V. is the sustainability coordinator under the facility agreement.
The $200 million loan was fully drawn down on March 28, 2023, to repay two of the company’s bank loan facilities that were due to mature later in 2023, as well as providing an additional $65.4 million for general corporate purposes.
