Q3 2021 renewable lenders rankings

inspiratia analyses the top performance activity in the renewable field for Q1 to Q3 2021, with gigawatt plans and projects attracting lender interest

In Q3 2021, the top lender secures its top position working on one of the world's largest single-contracted solar PV plants and the largest in Saudi Arabia to date. But, with its performance also exceling for Q1 to Q3, having lent an amassed sum of US$5.3 billion (£3.9bn €4.5bn), the top lender is SMBC.

SMBC's activity so far this year has reached every region, but its largest debt allocation for the period concerns the  JPY 90 million (US$854m £609m €704m) in financing the acquisition of 112MW biomass thermal power plant in Sendai, Japan. SMBC provided a US$640 million (£469m €543m) loan to  Sumitomo Corporation

More recently, in September [2021], SMBC participated in the US$1.2 billion (£890m €1bn) acquisition of Colbún Transmisión, a portfolio of Chilean transmission assets. A debt package of US$1 billion (£815m €949m) was provided by a group of lenders that also include JP Morgan, Citigroup, and Santander. SMBC provided a US$274 million (£203m €237m) bond to sponsors Celeo Redes and APG which respectively have an ownership stake of 20% and 80% in the portfolio.

Spanish international lender, Santander, secured second place with an allocated lending volume of US$3.4 billion (£2.5bn €2.9bn).

The largest debt package the lender has participated in thus far involves a US$4.5 billion (£3.3bn €3.7bn) loan for the acquisition of Oscar III, a portfolio of four waste-to-energy assets. FSI bought the portfolio from Wheelabrator UK and SSE Plc. The total debt was sourced from Santander, MUFG, Credit Agricole and Natixis.

MUFG secures third place having lent a total allocated volume of US$2.8 billion (£2bn €2.4bn). One of the largest, and recent, transactions in its portfolio for 2021 is the US$1.8 billion (£1.3bn €1.5bn) revolving credit and trade finance facility provided to Lightsource bp to execute its plans to develop 25GW solar by 2025. MUFG participated in the debt facility together with a nine other lenders including CIBC, Santander, NatWest, and others.

Deal Count

Examining the deal count, SMBC retains its first position with a total of 44 deals for Q1 to Q3 2021.

Another notable deal under SMBC space is the primary financing of the Transgrid Transmission Network. The deal has a total value of US$619m (£437m €121m) to finance a revolving credit facility required for the maintenance and augmentation of the transmission network in New South Wales, Australia. The developers are a consortium of six which include CDPQ, OMERS, Spark Infrastructure, Utilities Trust of Australia, Wren House, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Ranked in second place is MUFG with a total of 22 deals covering wind, waste-to-energy and solar assets.

MUFG provided syndicated facilities to sponsor, Adani Green Energy Limited, to enable the financing of a series of hybrid wind and solar projects in Rajasthan, India. The total loan agreement is US$1.3 billion (£966m €1.1bn) and involved 11 banks including Siemen's bank, DBS bank, Barclays.  

Followed in joint third place by deal count is French lender Societe Generale and German bank NordLB, totalling of 19 deals.

Societe Generale also recently participated in Acciona Energia's completion of its inaugural €500 million (£427m US$579m) six-year green bond issue. The provisions from the bond will enable Acciona to double its installed renewable capacity from 10.7GW in 2020 to 20GW in 2025. Societe Generale joined a group of nine lenders.

NordLB's most recent deals in September [2021] involved wind and solar assets in the Asia Pacific. The latter being its involvement in Danish investor Obton's acquisition of an operational 30.9 MW PV plant located Fukushima Japan. NordLB's Singapore Branch was involved in the refinancing aspect of the deal.

Q3 2021 focus

Analysing the data closely for Q3 2021, SMBC retained its first position by allocated volume of US$1.7 billion (£1.2bn €1.4bn) along with a total of 13 deals.

SMBC's largest allocation for the quarter was an equity bridge loan of US$75 million (£54.1m 63.6m) to finance the 1.5GW Sudair solar plant in Saudi Arabia. The deal involved 9 lenders including SABB, Standard Chartered, and others. The deal reached financial close in August [2021] with a cumulative transaction volume of SAR 3.4billion (US$906m £655m €769m).

Top 10 lenders by allocated volume and deal count, Q3 2021

Source: inspiratia | datalive

Societe Generale secured second place with an allocated volume of US$1.5 billion (£1.1bn €1.2bn) and 10 deals. A notable deal is Societe Generale's contribution to Hamburg-based Encavis' refinancing of a portfolio of 21 ground-mounted PV plants in Italy - a total capacity of 41.7MW.

Ranked in third place is Santander which has accumulated an allocated volume of US$1 billion (£740m €866m) and nine deals for Q3 2021. Notably, Santander participated in the refinancing of a 49.9MW CSP plant in Fuente Palmera, Spain. The deal involved two other banks, BNP Paribas and Caixabank.