ACEN secures $150-m green loan from bank consortium
By Alena Mae S. Flores – July 5, 2024, 8:50 pm
from manilastandard.net
ACEN Corp. said Friday its subsidiary ACEN Renewables International Pte. Ltd. (ACRI) secured a five-year syndicated green term loan and revolving credit facility amounting to $150 million from a consortium of international financial institutions.
ACEN said this further solidified the market’s trust and confidence in Ayala-led power generation unit’s robust renewable energy pipeline across the region.
CTBC Bank (Philippines) Corp. and CTBC Bank Co. Ltd. acted as structuring bank and arranger, respectively, and formed a strategic alliance with five banks – Singapore branches of CTBC Bank Co., Ltd., Malayan Banking Berhad, Chang Hwa Commercial Bank, Ltd., Land Bank of Taiwan and Mega International Commercial Bank Co., Ltd.
“The participation of different international banks in this transaction which includes a long-term revolving facility is a demonstration of the financial community’s strong confidence in ACEN’s leadership in the renewable energy sector and their full support for our growing pipeline outside our home market. We are thankful to the lenders for their trust as we strategically head towards our goal of reaching 20 GW by 2030,” ACEN group treasurer Cecile Cruzabra said.
CTBC Bank (Philippines) senior vice president of institutional banking group Mike Albotra said the banks’ strong support for ACEN is a clear manifestation of their faithfulness to their respective sustainability goals and desire to reduce the threat of rising global temperature.
“Our introduction of ACEN to the Taiwan investors last year has indeed paved the way for this much awaited transaction which we are truly honored to have successfully arranged. We believe in ACEN’s story, its vision and aspiration to achieve 20 GW capacity by 2030,” Albotra said.
Sunny Sng, CTBC Singapore branch head of corporate banking 1, said CTBC is honored to be trusted by ACEN to lead arrange ACRI’s first syndicated green loan facility.
“We are pleased that the $100-million syndicated 5-year green loan facility was oversubscribed and closed at $150 million with four other lenders, Maybank, Land Bank of Taiwan, Chang Hwa Commercial Bank and Mega International Commercial Bank,” Sng said.
Sng said the bank syndicate is committed to supporting ACEN in growing its international portfolio and achieving its goal of 20 GW of renewable capacity by 2030.
ACEN said it would use the proceeds from the syndicated green term loan to support its fast-growing presence in the Asia Pacific.
The company has about 4.8 gigawatts of attributable renewables capacity in operation and under construction, as well as signed agreements and won competitive tenders worth over 1 GW.
ACEN surpassed its original goal of reaching 5 GW of renewables by 2025. ACEN aims to grow its renewables capacity to 20 GW by 2030.
