German Retail Giant Plans World-First With Sustainability Bond Issue

German retail giant Otto Group has plans to be the first apparel, textiles and homewares retailer in the world to issue sustainability bonds. This week, the company — with 13.7 billion euros in annual sales and 51,800 staff across brands like Bonprix, Crate & Barrel and Manufactum — has revealed that a vetted financial framework for such an issue is in place and an actual bond issue can be expected shortly. As opposed to purely “green bonds,” so-called sustainability bonds are issued to fund projects that have both environmental and social goals, things like fair pay and decent conditions. “Sustainability has been part of our corporate strategy since the Eighties,” said Boris Jendruschewitz, who heads the Otto Group’s corporate finance department. “As such, it came very naturally to us, as a regular issuer of bonds in the capital markets, to think about setting up a ‘sustainable finance framework’ for future bond issues.” Jendruschewitz told WWD that, due to compliance, the company cannot give an exact date for the bond issue. He will only say that, “new bond issues are possible in the next couple of months,” adding that Otto Group regularly issues bonds worth around 200 million to 300 million euros with no public

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