BlackRock Real Assets, an investment banking firm, has secured TWD 9.4 billion (~$327.5 million) in debt to refinance a 186 MW portfolio of solar projects in Taiwan.
Law Firm Linklaters advised the lenders on the transaction.
The portfolio, owned by BlackRock Real Assets’ Global Renewable Power Fund II, aggregates 42 projects held by many operating companies, covering ground-mounted, floating, and rooftop solar assets across Taiwan, which BlackRock Real Assets and Taiwan-based New Green Power have taken through from construction to operations.
Under the transaction, BlackRock Real Assets has secured an 18-year green loan facility. The green loan facility adopts the Green Loan Framework, which aligns with the Green Loan Principles (2011). The financing also included several other advanced features for the Taiwan market, including the use of a non-recourse holding company borrowing structure and the reliance by lenders on a debt service reserve facility.
The lenders comprised two Taiwanese banks, Bank Sinopac and E.Sun Commercial Bank, five international banks, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.
According to Mercom’s Q1 2022 solar funding and M&A report, total corporate funding—including venture capital (VC) funding, public market, and debt financing—into the solar sector in Q1 2022 came to $7.5 billion in 49 deals, a 51% increase compared to $5 billion raised in 32 deals in Q4 2021. However, funding was lower by 7% year-over-year compared to Q1 2021.
According to Mercom Research, in March 2021, Distributed Solar Development (DSD), a business backed by BlackRock Real Assets’ Global Renewable Power platform and GE Renewable Energy, has secured a two-year, $150M construction revolver financing from Rabobank to finance its expanding pipeline of distributed generation solar projects in the commercial and industrial (C&I) market. The revolver incorporates multiple tax equity partnerships and will deliver capital throughout DSD’s business cycle, including an equipment supply sub-limit.
