Kartesia announces first transaction for its Impact Strategy with financing for UCAM

Kartesia, the European specialist provider of capital solutions for small and mid-sized companies, is pleased to announce that it has provided a sustainability-linked financing facility to the Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia (“UCAM” or “the University”), one of Spain’s leading private universities. This is the first investment under Kartesia’s impact investing strategy.

UCAM is one of the largest private onsite universities in Spain with more than 20,000 students and offers bachelors, masters, PhDs and vocational training programmes across its two campuses in the Murcia region of southeast Spain. The University enjoys a strong background and reputation in the provision of health degrees in areas like nursing, medicine, dentistry and physiotherapy.

The purpose of this facility is to provide support for the continuing expansion of the University while promoting certain ESG measures that reinforce UCAM’s already strong stance on maintaining and developing its social impact.

As part of the terms set out in in the facility, UCAM will benefit from more attractive financing conditions if they continue to meet certain KPIs agreed with Kartesia. The cost of financing is linked to the achievement of sustainability targets linked to promoting access to high quality education and reducing inequalities. The fulfilment of these KPIs will be annually audited by a third party specialised in ESG auditing.

In addition, Kartesia has assisted the company in reviewing its carbon footprint for potential areas of improvement and in setting the guidelines for an ESG strategy to be followed during the tenure of the financing facility.

The deal team at Kartesia consisted of Damien Scaillierez, Javier Castillo and Carlos Vázquez.

Javier Castillo at Kartesia, commented: “We are very pleased to close our first investment for Kartesia’s innovative impact investing strategy. UCAM is an institution with which we are very familiar, having first provided financing for the management team in October 2020 and they have established themselves as one of Spain’s leading providers of higher education. UCAM’s mission has always been closely tied to key ESG targets, such as greater access to education and the promotion of socially inclusive learning, so it makes perfect sense for our impact strategy to provide this unique financing structure with clear sustainability-linked goals. We are confident they will be successful in meeting these targets and continue to be at the forefront of the private education sector in Spain.”