RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil,
Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- EDF
Renewables, a global market leader in renewable energy, and
Canadian Solar Inc. (the "Company", or "Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ:
CSIQ), one of the world's largest solar power companies, today
announced their jointly-owned 399 MWp Pirapora solar complex in
Brazil has successfully raised a
total of 1.39 billion Brazilian reais (US$373 million) via multiple project finance
sources. EDF Renewables owns 80% of the complex while Canadian
Solar owns the remaining 20% stake.
The 191.5 MWp Pirapora I solar power project raised 220 million
Brazilian reais (US$59 million) of
infrastructure debentures through private placement to accredited
institutional investors. The debentures have a tenor of 16 years
and are guaranteed by the Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB")
and IDB Invest, the private sector arm of the IDB Group. Fitch
Ratings assigned the debentures ratings of A+ (Global) and AAA
(Brazil), with stable outlook.
This innovative issuance marks the first debenture of a solar
project in Brazil to be assigned a
global investment grade rating. This also marks IDB group's first
structured credit guarantee product for solar in Brazil. BTG Pactual acted as a financial
advisor to the sponsors for this transaction. Proceeds of this
issuance will be used to repay a construction bridge loan provided
by IDB. As previously announced on August 7,
2017, the project also received an 18-year financing from
the Brazilian Development Bank ("BNDES") in the amount of 529
million Brazilian reais (US$142
million). This structure is the result of an innovative
partnership between BNDES and IDB, which could stimulate the
financing of other renewable energy projects in the country.
In addition, the 115 MWp Pirapora II solar power project closed
long-term project financing of 366 million Brazilian reais
(US$99 million) from Banco do
Nordeste and the Northeast Constitutional Fund.
Adjacent 92.5 MWp Pirapora III solar power project has secured
long-term project financing of 271 million Brazilian reais
(US$73 million) from BNDES and the
Brazilian National Climate Fund.
"These financings demonstrate the huge interest of leading
financial institutions in the development of large scale solar
energy infrastructure in Brazil,"
commented Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar. "The high quality of the
projects and the solidity of the sponsors were determinant to
structure this important funding" – said Paulo Abranches, Chief Executive Officer of EDF
Renewables in Brazil.
The Pirapora projects, operational since mid-2018, are among the
largest solar complexes in the Latin
America region. The three plants are powered by
approximately 1,235,000 high-efficiency CS6U-P modules manufactured
by Canadian Solar in Sao Paulo State, Brazil. Solar energy generated from these
projects are fully contracted with 20-year inflation-linked power
purchase agreements.
About EDF Renewables (previously EDF Energies
Nouvelles)
EDF Renewables is a leading international player in renewable
energies, with gross installed capacity of 14.2 GW worldwide. Its
development is mainly focused on wind and solar photovoltaic power.
EDF Renewables operates mostly in Europe and North
America but is continuing to grow by moving into promising
emerging regions such as Brazil,
China, India, South
Africa and the Middle East.
The company has strong positions in offshore wind power, but also
in other areas of the renewable energies industry such distributed
energy and energy storage. EDF Renewables develops, builds,
operates and maintains renewable energies projects, both for itself
and for third parties. Most of its international subsidiaries bear
the EDF Renewables brand. EDF Renewables is the EDF Group
subsidiary specialising in developing solar and wind power.
For more information, visit: www.edf-renouvelables.com
Follow us on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/edf-renouvelables and on Twitter
(@EDF_RE in French and @EDF_Renewables in English).
About Canadian Solar Inc.
Founded in 2001 in Canada,
Canadian Solar is one of the world's largest and foremost solar
power companies. As a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic
modules and provider of solar energy solutions, Canadian Solar also
has a geographically diversified pipeline of utility-scale power
projects in various stages of development. In the past 17 years,
Canadian Solar has successfully delivered over 30 GW of premium
quality modules to over 150
countries around the world. Furthermore, Canadian Solar is one of
the most bankable companies in the solar industry, having been
publicly listed on NASDAQ since 2006. For additional information
about the Company, follow Canadian Solar on LinkedIn or
visit www.canadiansolar.com.
Safe Harbor/Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking
statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that
could cause actual results to differ materially. These statements
are made under the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can
identify forward-looking statements by such terms as "believes,"
"expects," "anticipates," "intends," "estimates," the negative of
these terms, or other comparable terminology. Factors that could
cause actual results to differ include general business and
economic conditions and the state of the solar industry;
governmental support for the deployment of solar power; future
available supplies of high-purity silicon; demand for end-use
products by consumers and inventory levels of such products in the
supply chain; changes in demand from significant customers; changes
in demand from major markets such as Japan, the
U.S., India and China; changes in customer order
patterns; changes in product mix; capacity utilization; level of
competition; pricing pressure and declines in average selling
prices; delays in new product introduction; delays in utility-scale
project approval process; delays in utility-scale project
construction; delays in the completion of project sales; continued
success in technological innovations and delivery of products with
the features customers demand; shortage in supply of materials or
capacity requirements; availability of financing; exchange rate
fluctuations; litigation and other risks as described in the
Company's SEC filings, including its annual report on
Form 20-F filed on April 26, 2018. Although the Company
believes that the expectations reflected in the forward looking
statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results,
level of activity, performance, or achievements. Investors should
not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All
information provided in this press release is as of today's date,
unless otherwise stated, and Canadian Solar undertakes no
duty to update such information, except as required under
applicable law.
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SOURCE Canadian Solar Inc.