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With air pollution causing nearly 7 million premature deaths every year, according to the World Health Organisation, and less than 3% of the world’s water being drinkable, MANN+HUMMEL took a strategic turn in the 2010s. From a traditional family-owned company specialised in automotive supply, the German company applied its core competency of producing cutting edge filtration and separation solutions well beyond the automotive sector to offer its air and water filtration solutions into electronics, pharmaceuticals, hospitality, airports, hospitals, schools and public authorities.
The company is now a global technology leader in filtration. Drawing on the expertise of its more than 22,000 employees across 80 locations globally, MANN+HUMMEL offers 120,000 products that cater for cleaner mobility, air, water and performance & industry, generating EUR4.8 billion in sales in 2022.
MANN+HUMMEL’s relationship with BNP Paribas started around the time the company initiated its transformation, with the bank helping the company diversify into new markets and technologies through acquisitions financing.
“MANN+HUMMEL really accelerated in 2015 when BNP Paribas supported us during the refinancing and hedging of the largest M&A transaction of our group’s history,” said Dominik Paschinger, Vice President Group Treasury and Risk Management at MANN+HUMMEL.
Among MANN+HUMMEL’s key transactions are the automotive industry’s first green promissory note provided by BNP Paribas in 2017 for EUR400 million and an EUR800 million syndicated revolving credit facility for which the Bank was coordinator and bookrunner in 2022.
“What we have done is start to think about how to reflect this transformation towards sustainability in the company’s financing,” said Sascha Fink, Senior Relationship Banker at BNP Paribas, adding: “All of the company’s financing now has some kind of ESG component.”
The 2022 loan was aimed at financing the expansion of MANN+HUMMEL’s Life Sciences & Environment (LS&E) segment which focuses on filtration and separation solutions for cleaner air and water. In addition, the terms of the loan were tied to the company’s ESG rating provided by EcoVadis, meaning that the cost of borrowing would increase or decrease based on the EcoVadis score.
With this transaction, BNP Paribas became MANN+HUMMEL’s lead bank, as well as one of its top three bank for cash management across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. With BNP Paribas’s support, MANN+HUMMEL has been acquiring companies in the sector to accelerate its expansion in LS&E.