Pentagreen Capital, a sustainable infrastructure debt financing partnership established by shareholders HSBC and Temasek, and Citicore Solar Energy Corporation (CSEC), the solar development vehicle of Citicore Renewable Energy Corporation, a Philippines-based integrated renewable energy platform, signed a landmark financing to accelerate the development of new solar power projects.
Pentagreen, acting as exclusive Mandated Lead Arranger in its first project financing, structured a US$100 million Mezzanine Construction Green Loan Facility and committed an initial tranche of US$30 million for a portfolio of six solar power projects with a gross capacity of 490 megawatts across the island of Luzon in the Philippines.
Pentagreen’s commitment is the first international institutional investment and is designed to enable the mobilisation of additional debt funding to support the construction of the company’s ready-to-build projects. Pentagreen’s US$30 million commitment comes with a greenshoe option to increase the committed amount to US$100 million to fund additional greenfield solar projects and the expansion of the portfolio to over 1 gigawatt.
This initial tranche will provide funding for the construction of four greenfield projects and two more that have been recently completed. These projects are expected to add around 691 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable electricity supply into the Luzon grid annually and result in avoided Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions of 430,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, as estimated in accordance with the methodology established by the International Financial Institutions Technical Working Group on Greenhouse Gas Accounting.
Developed by CSEC, which has plans to roll out 1GW of solar capacity per year over the next five years, the projects will sell green electricity to a combination of long-term and spot market customers, supporting the Philippines’ Department of Energy’s goal of generating 35% of the country’s energy needs from renewable sources by 2030 and 50% by 2040.
“We are delighted to partner with Citicore Renewables to support its ambition of becoming a leading green electricity provider in the Philippines and are honoured to welcome them as the first addition to our own portfolio,” said Marat Zapparov, CEO of Pentagreen Capital. “As a dedicated financing vehicle for sustainable infrastructure, Pentagreen identifies opportunities where our capital and structuring capabilities can serve to unlock the barriers to infrastructure development. We believe vehicles like ours will play a crucial role in financing Asia’s progress towards net zero.”
“Pentagreen’s partnership with Citicore Renewables is a vote of confidence in our ability to scale up, enabling us to achieve our planned 1GW project rollout this year, in line with our 5GW in 5 years roadmap. We appreciate Pentagreen’s support for our solar projects as it unlocks the development of our renewable energy capacity pipeline in an accelerated manner,” said Oliver Tan, Chief Executive Officer of Citicore Renewable Energy Corporation.
“This first deal is a testament to the innovative and agile approach that Pentagreen can adopt to bring capital to areas where it’s most needed in the fight against climate change. Providing finance and building global partnerships to help channel investment towards sustainable projects means HSBC can make an effective impact in addressing Asia’s infrastructure investment gaps,” said Kelvin Tan, ASEAN Head of Sustainable Finance of HSBC and Board Director of Pentagreen Capital.
“The accelerated development of renewable energy is vital for Asia to meet its net-zero ambitions and decarbonise in a rapid and inclusive manner. Pentagreen demonstrates that a specialised lender can effectively remove the barriers to bankability and unlock the implementation of projects in the region. Blended finance solutions will be critical to enable such transactions to be done at scale, and Temasek is delighted to continue its partnership with HSBC to support Pentagreen on this journey,” said Connie Chan, Head of financial Services at Temasek and Board Director of Pentagreen Capital.
The Mezzanine Construction Green Loan Facility has been structured as a green loan under Citicore’s Green Financing Framework, which was developed according to ICMA Green Bond Principles 2021, ASEAN Green Bond Standards and LMA Green Loan Principles, and which has received a Second Party Opinion from Sustainalytics.
