TRIG chairman Helen Mahy CBE with RES chairman Gavin McAlpine and Scottish minister Ivan McKee at the Broxburn Energy Storage facility in 2018. Image: RES.
The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) has secured a £500 million ESG-linked SONIA credit facility to support its new investments.
It has therefore successfully refinanced and expanded its revolving credit facility (RCF), with this having been done at lower rates. In May 2020, the company raised £120 million to go towards the RCF, issuing 100 million new ordinary shares. The refinanced RCF has been made available for a three-year term, with TRIG stating that the larger size reflects its increased scale of acquisitions.
Already, it has invested in a portfolio of over 70 wind, solar and battery storage projects with aggregate net generating capacity of over 1.6GW and is currently seeking further suitable investment opportunities.
The consortium of lenders for the RCF includes existing lenders National Australia Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland International and ING and three new participants- Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Barclays and Santander.
The interest charged is to be linked to TRIG’s ESG performance, with its targets including increasing the number of homes powered by clean energy from its portfolio, increasing the number of community funds it supports and maintaining a low Lost Time Accident Frequency Rate.
Helen Mahy CBE, chairman of TRIG, said: "We're very proud to have secured one of the first ESG-linked SONIA loans. We have set ourselves ambitious but achievable targets for the next few years which underline our commitment to sustainability and align our interests with our debt and equity investors."