Additional topics

Successful placement of the first ESG-linked Schuldschein loan

In June 2020, Aurubis became the first company in the basic materials industry in Europe to place a Schuldschein loan with an ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) component. With the ESG-linked Schuldschein loan, investors have the opportunity to invest capital in accordance with clear sustainability aspects.

The order book volume of € 200 million was significantly oversubscribed due to high investor demand, so we were able to place a volume of € 400 million with terms of three, five, and seven years with both fixed and variable interest rates. Aurubis is using these funds for general company financing and for the acquisition of the Metallo Group.

Aurubis’ sustainability achievements, which are reflected in the rating given by the recognized, independent sustainability agency EcoVadis, flow directly into the calculation of the interest costs for the loan. When Aurubis’ sustainability rating improves, the company receives more favorable interest rate conditions; if the rating declines, the interest rate increases. Our responsibility for supply chains, people, and the environment is therefore directly linked to our financing costs.

A central element of the new digital strategy

With the July 2020 acquisition of software developer azeti – a Berlin start-up – Aurubis has secured an Internet of Things (IoT) platform to integrate and analyze production data in the long term. The software is able to bring together large volumes of data from highly diverse sources simply and quickly, allowing previously undiscovered optimization potential to be identified and utilized. The azeti platform will make production processes in metal production and recycling more flexible and efficient, though the acquired expertise and resources open up new digital possibilities in other areas as well.

azeti will continue supporting customers from other industries. This ensures that the platform is continuously adjusted to new market needs, and at the same time, we’ll learn how other industries are implementing the topic of digitalization.

More information in a short film and at: www.azeti.net

Joint venture for the circular economy

Aurubis AG and the recycling company TSR Recycling GmbH & Co. KG signed an agreement to establish a recycling joint venture. Aurubis will hold 40 % of the company, called Cablo GmbH, which will combine the cable dismantling activities of the Aurubis subsidiary Cablo and TSR (Lünen). Under the operational management of TSR, the new company’s objective is to recover copper granules and to strengthen the trade in additional metals and recovered plastics.

“The separate recycling strengths of both partners will complement each other perfectly in the joint venture: TSR contributes a broad network of branches that collect the materials, as well as its existing logistics and its pre-processing expertise; Aurubis brings along extensive metallurgical processing knowledge for a wide variety of recycling raw materials to recover different metals,” explains Aurubis Chief Executive Officer Roland Harings.

This joint venture is a further development of the recycling business within the scope of our “closing-the-loop” approach and creates a broader basis for securing input materials in the long term. This will further optimize the Aurubis Group’s sustainable pre-processing and utilization of recycling materials.

Our joint venture makes a crucial contribution to the objectives of the European Commission’s Green Deal, especially the shift from a linear to a circular economy – and it serves as a role model for other material flows as well.

Share buyback for future acquisitions and financing

Building on its strong balance sheet and good liquidity position, Aurubis passed a resolution in March 2020 to buy back its own shares: up to 10 % of the existing share capital with a maximum volume of € 200 million. On March 1, 2018, the shareholders at the Annual General Meeting authorized the management to take this step. The objective of the share buyback program is to use the treasury stock for purposes authorized by the shareholders at the Annual General Meeting on March 18, 2018, particularly possible acquisitions or future financing needs. The buyback program started on March 1, 2020 and will conclude on September 17, 2021 at the latest. During the first and second tranche until early November 2020, Aurubis bought back about 2.89 % of its share capital for a total price of approximately € 60 million. This does not affect our dividend policy.