Salesforce Announces Issuance of Inaugural Sustainability Bond
First Sustainability Bond by a Software Company
Proceeds from $1 Billion offering to support investments in innovative projects that address global climate, equality and other social challenges
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, today announced the pricing of its inaugural Sustainability Bond offering, totaling $1 billion, which was part of a $8 billion underwritten public offering of senior notes.
As outlined in the Salesforce Sustainable Bond Framework, Salesforce intends to allocate an amount equal to the net proceeds to finance or refinance, in whole or in part, one or more projects related to nine green and social eligible project categories.
Green eligible project categories include: Technology for Climate Action, Green Buildings, Renewable Energy, Pollution Prevention & Control, Nature-Based Solutions and Sustainable Water Management. Social eligible project categories include: Technology for Social Good, Commitment to Racial Equality, and Socioeconomic Advancement & Empowerment.
To view the Salesforce Sustainable Bond Framework, and for more information, visit investor.salesforce.com/sustainablebondframework.
The offering is being made under an automatic shelf registration statement on Form S-3 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on December 4, 2020. Before you invest, you should read the registration statement (including the preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus) for more complete information about Salesforce and the offering. You may get the preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, copies of the preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus and, when available, the final prospectus supplement relating to the offering may be obtained by contacting Citigroup Global Markets Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, toll-free at 1-800-831-9146 or email: prospectus@citi.com; BofA Securities, Inc., NC1-004-03-43 200 North College Street, 3rd Floor Charlotte, NC 25255, Attn: Prospectus Department, or toll-free at 1-800-294-1322 or dg.prospectus_requests@bofa.com; or J.P. Morgan Securities LLC 383 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10179, Attention: Investment Grade Syndicate Desk, or collect at 1-212-834-4533.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to purchase, any securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
About Salesforce
Salesforce, the global CRM leader, empowers companies of every size and industry to digitally transform and create a 360° view of their customers. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.
Forward Looking Statements
“Safe harbor” statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements about Salesforce’s financial and operating results, which may include expected GAAP and non-GAAP financial and other operating and non-operating results, including revenue, net income, earnings per share, operating cash flow growth, operating margin, expected revenue growth, expected current remaining performance obligation growth, expected tax rates, stock-based compensation expenses, amortization of purchased intangibles, shares outstanding, market growth, environmental, social and governance goals, expected capital allocation, including mergers and acquisitions, capital expenditures and other investments, expectations regarding closing contemplated acquisitions and contributions from acquired companies. The achievement or success of the matters covered by such forward-looking statements involves risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If any such risks or uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, our results could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements it makes.
The risks and uncertainties referred to above include — but are not limited to — risks associated with the impact of, and actions we may take in response to, the COVID-19 pandemic, related public health measures and resulting economic downturn and market volatility; our ability to maintain security levels and service performance meeting the expectations of our customers, and the resources and costs required to avoid unanticipated downtime and prevent, detect and remediate performance degradation and security breaches; the expenses associated with our data centers and third-party infrastructure providers; our ability to secure additional data center capacity; our reliance on third-party hardware, software and platform providers; the effect of evolving domestic and foreign government regulations, including those related to the provision of services on the Internet, those related to accessing the Internet, and those addressing data privacy, cross-border data transfers and import and export controls; current and potential litigation involving us or our industry, including litigation involving acquired entities such as Tableau, and the resolution or settlement thereof; regulatory developments and regulatory investigations involving us or affecting our industry; our ability to successfully introduce new services and product features, including any efforts to expand our services; our ability to find and execute on green eligible projects; the success of our strategy of acquiring or making investments in complementary businesses, joint ventures, services, technologies and intellectual property rights; our ability to complete, on a timely basis or at all, announced transactions, including our proposed acquisition of Slack Technologies, Inc.; our ability to realize the benefits from acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures and investments; our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and technologies; our ability to compete in the market in which we participate; the success of our business strategy and our plan to build our business, including our strategy to be a leading provider of enterprise cloud computing applications and platforms; our ability to execute our business plans; our ability to continue to grow unearned revenue and remaining performance obligation; the pace of change and innovation in enterprise cloud computing services; the seasonal nature of our sales cycles; our ability to limit customer attrition and costs related to those efforts; the success of our international expansion strategy; the demands on our personnel and infrastructure resulting from significant growth in our customer base and operations, including as a result of acquisitions; our ability to preserve our workplace culture, including as a result of our decisions regarding our current and future office environments or work-from-home policies; our dependency on the development and maintenance of the infrastructure of the Internet; our real estate and office facilities strategy and related costs and uncertainties; fluctuations in, and our ability to predict, our operating results and cash flows; the variability in our results arising from the accounting for term license revenue products; the performance and fair value of our investments in complementary businesses through our strategic investment portfolio; the impact of future gains or losses from our strategic investment portfolio, including gains or losses from overall market conditions that may affect the publicly traded companies within our strategic investment portfolio; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; our ability to develop our brands; the impact of foreign currency exchange rate and interest rate fluctuations on our results; the valuation of our deferred tax assets and the release of related valuation allowances; the potential availability of additional tax assets in the future; the impact of new accounting pronouncements and tax laws; uncertainties affecting our ability to estimate our tax rate; uncertainties regarding our tax obligations in connection with potential jurisdictional transfers of intellectual property, including the tax rate, the timing of the transfer and the value of such transferred intellectual property; uncertainties regarding the effect of general economic and market conditions; the impact of geopolitical events; uncertainties regarding the impact of expensing stock options and other equity awards; the sufficiency of our capital resources; risks related to the availability and funding of our bridge loan facility and term loan associated with our proposed acquisition of Slack Technologies, Inc. and other indebtedness; our ability to comply with our debt covenants and lease obligations; and the impact of climate change, natural disasters and actual or threatened public health emergencies, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Further information on these and other risk and uncertainties relating to Salesforce can be found in the preliminary prospectus supplement relating to the offering and its reports filed on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and in other filings Salesforce makes with the SEC from time to time and available at www.sec.gov.
Contacts
Evan Goldstein
Salesforce
Investor Relations
415-819-2987
evan.goldstein@salesforce.com
Corina Standiford
Salesforce
Public Relations
cstandiford@salesforce.com