Owner of Paladin sauces issues 2.5 million in social bonds – Obligations

Casa Mendes Gonçalves, owner of the Paladin brand, placed 2.5 million euros in five-year social bonds, in a private debt offering that was fully subscribed by CaixaBI.

The objective of the operation is to finance affordable housing for the company’s workers. “The amount will be fully allocated to investment in housing stock”, reveals the company’s CFO, Bruno Amorim.

The securities will be listed on the stock exchange, specifically on Euronext Acess Lisbon, and will be available for purchase by investors on the secondary market.

During the operation’s presentation session, the CEO of Casa Mendes Gonçalves, Carlos Gonçalves, explained that the amount allocatedwill be applied to the purchase of houses and their rehabilitation, in order to shelter workers who are refugees in Portugal and also those who have returned to the country or whose first job is at the company that owns Paladin sauces.

The project is not new. The company already has “25 houses that serve our people, be it entire refugee families, young people who returned to Portugal and young people in their first job”, said Carlos Gonçalves. The coupon that will be paid to the investment bank for subscribing to these debt securities has not been disclosed.

Asked whether this private debt offering opens the door to new public issues, the CEO of the owner of the Paladin and Peninsular brands made it clear that “For now, this operation does not open” the door to public debt offerings, although it does not rule out that this will happen in the future, “if it makes sense”, specifically “in an investment” that will be carried out.

(News updated at 5:06 pm).