LEI: 213800ZPHCBDDSQH5447
16 April 2024
NextEnergy Solar Fund
Limited
("NESF"
or the "Company")
£135m Revolving Credit
Facility Refinance
NextEnergy Solar Fund, a leading
specialist investor in solar energy and energy storage, is pleased
to announce it has refinanced its existing £135m short-term
Revolving Credit Facility ("RCF") with AIB Group and NatWest which
is due to expire in June 2024.
The new facility is available until
June 2026 and provides two additional 12-month extension options at
NESF's sole discretion to bring the maturity date up to June
2028. The RCF continues to benefit from attractive terms with
a margin of 120bps over SONIA ("Sterling Overnight Index
Average"). The banking consortium consists of the Company's
existing counterparties AIB Group and NatWest in addition to a new
counterparty Lloyds.
The Company is also on track to
exercise its option to extend its current £70m RCF with Santander
for another 12-months until June 2025 on similar terms and well
ahead of its June 2024 expiry. The Company will provide a
further update to the market in due course.
RCFs are an important component of
the Company's disciplined capital structure and continue to provide
the Company with flexibility both to drawdown to pursue
value-accretive investments and to make repayments. The
Company continues to prioritise its Capital Recycling Programme and
expects to use the proceeds from the Programme to pay down existing
borrowings under the Company's RCFs.
As at 31 December 2023, the Company
had drawn £163m from its £205m short-term Revolving Credit
Facilities and had an unaudited Gross Asset Value ("GAV") of
£1,173m. Gearing levels remain well within the Company's
investment policy limit of up to 50% of GAV and as of 31 December
2023 the Company's gearing was 45.7% (including preference shares
which have a fixed preference dividend of 4.75% and no financial
maturity date).
Ross Grier, COO and Head of UK
Investments, NextEnergy Capital, commented:
"We are pleased to have secured similar terms on NextEnergy
Solar Fund's primary revolving credit facility. As we have
previously indicated, we continue to observe significant lender
interest in providing debt to the solar infrastructure sector
across the geographies we are active in. This refinancing
demonstrates lenders' continued appetite to provide facilities
against utility-scale solar assets in the UK on attractive
terms. NESF maintains a disciplined approach to its capital structure
and the sale of assets within the current capital recycling
programme remain a key priority for the Company, the proceeds of
which will be used to pay down existing RCF
borrowings."
For further information:
NextEnergy Capital
Michael Bonte-Friedheim
|
020 3746 0700
ir@nextenergysolarfund.com
|
Ross Grier
|
|
Stephen Rosser
|
|
Peter Hamid (Investor
Relations)
|
|
RBC Capital Markets
|
020 7653 4000
|
Matthew Coakes
|
|
Elizabeth Evans
Kathryn Deegan
|
|
Cavendish
|
020 7397 1909
|
James King
|
|
William Talkington
|
|
H/Advisors Maitland
|
020 7379 5151
|
Neil Bennett
|
|
Finlay Donaldson
|
|
|
|
Ocorian Administration (Guernsey)
Limited
|
01481 742642
|
Kevin Smith
|
|
Notes to
Editors1:
About NextEnergy Solar
Fund
NextEnergy Solar Fund is a
specialist solar energy and energy storage investment company that
is listed on the premium segment of the London Stock Exchange and
is a FTSE 250 constituent.
NextEnergy Solar Fund's investment
objective is to provide ordinary shareholders with attractive
risk-adjusted returns, principally in the form of regular
dividends, by investing in a diversified portfolio of utility-scale
solar energy and energy storage infrastructure assets. The
majority of NESF's long-term cash flows are inflation-linked via UK
government subsidies.
As at 31 December 2023, the Company
had an unaudited gross asset value of £1,173m. For further
information please visit www.nextenergysolarfund.com
Article 9 Fund
NextEnergy Solar Fund is classified
under Article 9 of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation
and EU Taxonomy Regulation. NextEnergy Solar Fund's
sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector
are in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 and can be
accessed on the ESG section of both the NextEnergy Solar Fund and
NextEnergy Capital website.
About NextEnergy Group
NextEnergy Solar Fund is managed by
NextEnergy Capital, part of the NextEnergy Group. NextEnergy
Group was founded in 2007 to become a leading market participant in
the international solar sector. Since its inception, it has
been active in the development, construction, and ownership of
solar assets across multiple jurisdictions. NextEnergy Group
operates via its three business units: NextEnergy Capital
(Investment Management), WiseEnergy (Operating Asset Management),
and Starlight (Asset Development).
· NextEnergy
Capital: Over 17 years of specialist
solar expertise having invested in over 400 individual solar plants
across the world. NextEnergy Capital currently manages four
institutional funds with a total capacity in excess of 3GW+ and has
assets under management of $4bn. www.nextenergycapital.com
· WiseEnergy®:
is a leading specialist operating asset manager in
the solar sector. Since its founding, WiseEnergy has provided
solar asset management, monitoring and technical due diligence
services to over 1,500 utility-scale solar
power plants with an installed capacity in excess of
2GW. www.wise-energy.com
·
Starlight: Developed over 100 utility-scale
projects internationally and continues to progress a large pipeline
of c.10GW of both green and brownfield project developments across
global geographies.
Notes:
1: All financial data is
unaudited at 31 December 2023, being the latest date in respect of
which NextEnergy Solar Fund has published financial
information