Antares Issues Sustainability Linked Minibonds of 3 Million

Antares srl of Parma, a company with consolidated experience in the automotive sector as a dealership and specialized workshop, has issued a sustainability linked minibond of 3 million euros with a maturity of 10 years, which was subscribed by UniCredit.

Antares has among its main objectives the installation of a new photovoltaic system

The bond, which is aimed at supporting the development of the company and improving its sustainability profiles, provides for a margin adjustment mechanism which contemplates the reduction or increase of the interest rate whether or not the targets set out in the clauses are achieved. of sustainability with which the company undertakes, over the course of the plan, to obtain and improve the ESG rating which will be assigned by Ecovadis, responsible for certifying the achievement of the targets.

In this regard, Antares has among its main objectives the installation of a new photovoltaic system at the headquarters in via Paradigna, in Parma, in order to reach 80% of self-produced energy at the service of the futuristic bodywork present in the plant and of the already planned Industry 5.0 investments.

Antares is a company founded in 1972, owned by Tania (50%) and Luigi Armani (49%), with minority shareholder Paolo Canepari (1%). It operates in the automotive sector with a Mercedes-Benz brand assistance mandate , to which Volkswagen and Ford have been added . Starting from Parma, in the historic building in Via Lavagna, today it has a total of 8 plants located between Parma, with a new and important operational and logistics center in Via Paradigna, Fidenza, Padua and Rome.

European leader in the on-site maintenance of commercial fleets, Antares has been able to innovate the sector by designing, developing and creating a new layout of structures with which to equip the vehicles used to carry out home services. At the same time it has innovated technologically, creating an app that manages, plans and monitors all interventions carried out and to be carried out on customer vehicles, calculating the most economical itinerary in terms of time and expense.

Thanks to its on-site activity alone, Antares, with its 15 vehicles, is able to carry out maintenance on 30,000 license plates across the country annually. In the last 10 years the turnover has grown, going from 6 million euros in 2013 to over 25 million euros in 2023, after closing 2022 with 18.3 million euros in revenues, an ebitda of around 470 thousand euros and a net financial debt of 10.4 million, compared to a net worth of 12.6 million.

Antares has over 150 employees

Manuel Ghiretti , CEO of Antares, declared: “This is an important goal, an objective that we set ourselves and which we have achieved today. I am proud to work for this great company which, due to the entrepreneurial vocation of the founder, has always focused on excellent service and quality. Antares is a company that with the generational change has seen Commendatore Armani succeeded by his children, Luigi and Tania and his nephew Paolo who have been able to treasure those values ​​and have been able to use them as a solid foundation on which to build its future. Which today is the present. The operation that I completed is also the starting point for the creation of investment and development plans and for implementing commercial agreements that will increase turnover, profitability and sustainability.”

Added Andrea Burchi , Regional Manager Central North of UniCredit: “As a bank and partner of local businesses, we offer multiple solutions suited to every need and company size. We are in fact determined to support them in seizing new development opportunities. This also occurs through alternative forms of financing, such as this sustainability linked minibond, an instrument that allows you to combine the opportunity to access the capital market with attention to sustainability. In fact, we are convinced that the growth of the productive fabric cannot ignore the achievement of ESG objectives”.

The topic of minibonds and ESG-linked Unicredit financing is particularly active. At the end of last November 2023, it signed a 5-year minibond of 4 million euros, assisted by the coverage of the Central Guarantee Fund, issued by T regenplast srl , a company from Brianza that has been operating in the ecological recovery sector for many years.

Last July, Unicrediti subscribed to a 3.5 million euro sustainability-linked minibond issued by RM Multimedia srl, a company from Cattolica (Rimini), specialized in the trade of technologies for shows, staging and design for theatres. The bank is the arranger and underwriter of the ESG Basket Bond, a program started in December 2022 with the aim of financing the sustainable development projects of SMEs for a total of at least 100 million euros. The program, of which Cassa Depositi e Prestiti is also a subscriber , reached its second tranche of issues at the end of August 2023, exceeding the initial target of 100 million.

On the ESG-linked loans front, however, in mid-February Unicredit provided a million euro loan with SACE’s Green guarantee to Reply , a supplier specialized in the production of 100% made in Italy metal components for the eyewear sector, 65% controlled by VeneVision, an industrial cluster of 100% made in Italy eyewear launched in 2022 by the investment holding VeNetWork.

A few days earlier the bank had provided a 6 million loan to Unifarco, a group that develops, produces and distributes cosmetic, nutraceutical, dermatological and make-up products and supports the largest community of independent pharmacies in Europe, serving more than 6,400 pharmacies partners in Italy, Austria, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. Even in that case, the loan provides for an indexation of the interest rate upon the achievement of pre-established improvement objectives in the ESG area.

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