Europe’s SOLEK Closes $379 Million Financing for Chile Solar Projects

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European renewable energy firm SOLEK has closed a $379 million financing for its portfolio in Chile, consisting of solar photovoltaic utility-scale and PMGD (Small Means of Distributed Generation projects in chile). The solar power projects will come up in the Central Region.

SOLEK claims to be a fast-growing company in the renewable energy sector. It presently owns a portfolio of about 284 MWdc in Chile and more than 400 MW of projects in development stage in Latin America.

The comprehensive financing, as per the official statement of SOLEK, comprises a $178 million senior private placement, $75 million mezzanine, $55 million PMGD bridge-loan facility, $37 million utility-scale bridge loan, $19 million LC Facility, and $15 million VAT line.

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SOLEK held that BNP Paribas and Natixis acted as placement agents, arrangers and lenders. BCI and Scotiabank Chile acted as agents and lenders on local facilities.

Entery in US Bond Market

SOLEK announced that it has forayed into the major United States Private Placement market (USPP) recently. It is entering this new market with a 20-year bond issuance worth $178 million.  SOLEK said that the transaction had strong demand from investors.

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“Thanks to the big opportunities that the renewable energy sector offers today, SOLEK has been experiencing a period of dynamic growth that implicates financing requirements. We had to meet stringent accreditation criteria to access financing on the USPP market. This flexible financing will allow us to focus on our PV projects and further development,” said Zdeněk Sobotka, founder and CEO of the SOLEK Group.

Companies entering the USPP market typically issue long-term bonds. The company’s USPP bonds have an amortizing repayment schedule with a maturity of 20 years, which aligns the debt profile to the life of the underlying investment. The proceeds from the USPP bonds will be used primarily to finance the expansion plans of SOLEK and to refinance existing debt.

SOLEK and Its Expanding Portfolio

SOLEK has most of its renewable energy business confined to Europe and Latin America. Since 2010, SOLEK has connected a total of 53 PV solar projects. Of these, 18 are in Europe and 35 in Chile. The Group has currently more than 38 renewable energy projects that will be built in Chile in 2023 and 2024.

The total installed capacity targeted by the end of 2023 is 400 MW worldwide, most of them in Latin America. In Europe, SOLEK has solar projects with a total capacity of 1.4 GW in the pipeline. Its projects in Romania and Greece are at the most advanced stage of development and are planned to be connected next year.