Noerr advises lenders on a syndicated credit facility agreement for HORNBACH Holding AG & Co. KGaA

Noerr has advised COMMERZBANK Aktiengesellschaft as coordinator and facility agent on a EUR 500,000,000 syndicated credit facility agreement for HORNBACH Holding AG & Co. KGaA. The revolving credit facility has been made available for purposes of refinancing an existing bridge loan facility as of January 2022 and an existing syndicated credit agreement originally dated 2017.

The new syndicated credit agreement for the HORNBACH Group for the first time includes a rendezvous clause with a view to subsequently adding a sustainability link. It is intended to include an ESG-link in order to increase or decrease the applicable margin depending on the satisfaction of certain ESG targets yet to be agreed.

With a term of five years and an extension option for up to two further years, the new syndicated financing offers the HORNBACH Group a secure long-term financing.

The HORNBACH Group is an independent, family-run retail group listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and represented in the SDAX. Its largest subsidiary, HORNBACH Baumarkt AG, operates 169 DIY megastores with garden centers (including specialist shops) and online shops in nine European countries. The Group also includes HORNBACH Baustoff Union, a regional builders' merchant company, and HORNBACH Immobilien AG, which develops retail real estate for the Group.

Legal advisor to the lenders: Noerr Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB

Dr Torsten Wehrhahn and Dr Alexander Schilling (both Patners, co-lead) and Sokorei Omar (Associate, all Finance, Frankfurt) 

Legal advisor to the borrower: Gleiss Lutz

Dr Kai Birke, Partner, Dr Jan-Alexander Lange, Counsel and Jana Pinto Escaleira, Associate