ACEN taps P10.5-B loan for projects in Australia
The Ayala Group’s ACEN Corp. has secured its largest funding so far from major international banks, this time totaling 277 million Australian dollars (P10.5 billion), which it says will be used to expand its renewable energy imprint in Australia.
In a disclosure, ACEN said its subsidiary ACEN Australia Pty. Ltd. signed a syndicated green term loan facility with Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd. (BOCHK), Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd.-Manila branch, CTBC Bank Co., Ltd.-Singapore branch, CTBC Bank (Philippines) Corp., Standard Chartered Bank-Australia branch and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The funding would be used for the development and construction of its projects in Australia, including solar, wind, battery storage, pumped hydropower and energy storage, it said.
Under construction, dev’t
It has over 1.5 gigawatts of projects there, either under construction or at an advanced stage of development.
These are the New England Solar, New England Battery, Stubbo Solar and Valley of the Winds projects in the New England and Central-West Orana Renewable Energy zones, as well as Robbins Island and Jim’s Plain Wind project in North West Tasmania.
“This syndicated green term loan facility continues to build on the funding secured at the end of last year, and will be mobilized into our Australian portfolio,” said ACEN Australia CEO Anton Rohner.
For this transaction, BOCHK was the green loan structuring bank while Commonwealth Bank of Australia acted as the agent for the syndicated green term loan facility.
Potential
Herbert Smith Freehills served as the legal counsel for ACEN Australia and King & Wood Mallesons for the lenders.
The latest financing forms part of ACEN’s goal of raising more than 600 million Australian dollars to capitalize on Australia’s renewables potential.
This is by far the biggest funding obtained by ACEN, surpassing other loans it got last year from various financial institutions: 140 million Australian dollars from MUFG Bank Ltd., Sydney branch; 100 million Australian dollars from DBS Bank Ltd., Australia branch and 75 million Australian dollars from Clean Energy Finance Corp.
ACEN is likewise aspiring to be the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia with a target of building 20 Gigawatt of total capacity by 2030.
It currently has 4,000 megawatts of attributable capacity in the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Australia. INQ
