Finance

Socially-Conscious Loans Attract Europe’s Alternative Lenders

  • Direct lenders weigh investor love for ESG against returns
  • Barings and Tikehau first to woo investors with ESG deals
Photographer: Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg
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Investor demand for socially responsible projects is slowly pushing its way into Europe’s private credit markets, kicking off a shift in a booming area of company finance.

Linking loan terms to environmental, social and governance goals is relatively established in investment-grade corporate debt, but still comparatively rare in the $850 billion universe of alternative credit. Barings LLC and Tikehau Capital SCA, so-called direct lenders that provide financing to mid-size firms, are among those now embracing such packages.