06/02/23

LU-VE Group: 25 million from Banco BPM for sustainable growth

The loan is linked to sustainability topics and is aimed at supporting the Company's ESG investment programme

Uboldo (VA), 6 February 2023 – Banco BPM continues to support the sustainable investments of LU-VE Group, with a 25 million euro loan. The Group is a multinational based in Varese, listed on the Euronext STAR Milan segment, and one of the major operators in the world in the air heat exchangers sector.

The transaction has sustainability as its objective and is linked to the improvement of specific performance indicators (ESG KPIs). The purpose of the loan is to support LU-VE Group's investment plan and support its working capital. The objective is linked to some green covenants linked to the percentage reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions (Green House Gas - GHG). LU-VE Group in fact contributes directly to the well-being of the environment through the development of heat exchangers that use natural refrigerant fluids (CO2, ammonia, propane and water), instead of hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), with the consequent benefit of eliminating or drastically reducing the negative impacts on the environment (ODP - Ozone Depletion Potential and GWP - Global Warming Potential), thus also responding to the green needs of its customers. From 1986 to today, through research projects on new refrigerants, LU-VE Group can boast a track record of highly successful CO2 installations in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. In 2004, the company built Europe's first transcritical CO2 plant (Coop Tägipark in Wettingen, Switzerland).

In January 2023, for the second time in a row, LU-VE Group's commitment to sustainability was awarded the "Companies most attentive to the climate" award for having distinguished itself among the best 130 Italian companies that have most committed themselves to reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The award was given by Corriere della Sera in collaboration with Statista GmbH (German company specializing in market research and company data analysis). The analysis is based on the annualized reduction rate (CARR) of the intensity of emissions (ratio of CO2 emissions to turnover in millions of euros) between 2019 and 2021.

Matteo Liberali, CEO of LU-VE Group declared: “We are very pleased with this further collaboration with Banco BPM. The new loan is aimed at supporting the new sustainable investments of LU-VE Group, along the path of the process of innovation, growth and attention to environmental impacts that the company has had among its objectives since its foundation. This approach has always distinguished us and is the basis of our commercial success on the various markets in which we operate. We will continue to work in this direction to further improve our ESG performance".

"The intervention in support of LU-VE Group confirms Banco BPM's ability to support companies that link their current business and development plans to factors such as sustainability, attention to the environment and technological innovation - commented Gianluca Colombo, Head of the North-West Corporate Market of Banco BPM – After all, the relevance of these issues is also fundamental for Banco BPM, as demonstrated by the 5 billion euro ceiling for sustainable investments, intended precisely to finance companies on their way to integration of ESG factors in the production cycle”.