Atmos Renewables Announces Green Loan Portfolio Refinancing

Atmos Renewables (“Atmos”) is pleased to announce it has achieved financial close of a Green Loan portfolio refinancing supported by a new Green Financing Framework. The portfolio refinancing, which is one of the largest financings for an operating renewable energy portfolio in Australia, consolidates the existing asset-level debt across a large part of Atmos’ high-quality, diversified portfolio of solar and wind assets.

The transaction took advantage of the geographical and technological diversification and high level of revenue contracting across the portfolio, to deliver an attractive financing package, whilst also providing the flexibility to grow the platform in the future as Atmos delivers on its strategy to develop, build and operate utility scale renewable energy and storage assets across Australia.

The portfolio financing attracted extensive interest and was supported by nine major domestic and international lenders with CBA, DBS, DNB, HSBC, ICBC, MUFG, NAB, RBC and WBC forming the lending syndicate.

The Green Loan highlights the alignment of the loan with the Asia Pacific Loan Market Association (APLMA) Green Loan Principles (“Principles”), an external set of principles that facilitates and supports environmentally sustainable economic activity. The APLMA aligned Green Loan highlights Atmos’ demonstration of its commitment to ESG and evidences that the use of proceeds is clearly linked to Eligible Green Projects. The Green overlay sets out how Atmos will manage its loan under the core components of the Principles, including its process for green project selection, management of proceeds and reporting.

Nigel Baker, Atmos’ Chief Executive Officer, highlighted the importance of this transaction for the company’s positioning and future growth plans. “Atmos Renewables is a green company at its core and closing the successful portfolio facility as a Green Loan is a significant milestone for the business. Atmos has already established a large and high-quality renewable energy portfolio and is ambitious in its plans to expand that portfolio over the next decade, as the heavy lifting of Australia’s energy transition occurs. Atmos appreciates the support of the lender group on this transaction, which provides a solid foundation from which the company can continue to build wind, storage and solar developments to drive a lower emissions future”.   

RBC acted as Financial Advisor on the transaction, with White & Case as Borrower’s Counsel, Clayton Utz as tax advisor, DNV as technical advisor and Baringa as market advisor. The lenders were advised by Allens.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, MUFG Bank Ltd and Westpac Banking Corporation acted as Joint Sustainability Coordinators on this transaction. DNV Australia provided a Second Party Opinion on the Green Loan confirming its alignment with the APLMA Green Loan Principles.

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About Atmos Renewables

Established in 2020, Atmos is fully owned by infrastructure funds managed by Igneo Infrastructure Partners (“Igneo”). Atmos has acquired ownership interests in a number of wind and solar assets, growing to become one of the largest renewable energy operators in Australia. The company’s strategy is to continue to invest in new renewable energy generation and storage across a variety of proven technologies in Australia, including developing and constructing new projects. As at February 2023, Atmos owns or has an equity stake in a portfolio of 14 operating solar and wind assets in Australia.

For more information, visit atmosrenewables.com.au

About Igneo Infrastructure Partners

Igneo Infrastructure Partners is an autonomous investment team in the First Sentier Investors Group. It invests in high-quality, mature, mid-market infrastructure companies in the utilities and transport sectors in the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Igneo has set a target to achieve Net Zero portfolio GHG emissions across all funds by 2050 or sooner.

Operating since 1994, the team works closely with portfolio companies to create long-term sustainable value through innovation, a focus on ESG and proactive asset management. Igneo manages over US$16bn worth of assets (as at 31 December 2022) on behalf of more than 120 investors around the world.

For more information, visit igneoip.com

Important information

This press release is intended for information only, aimed solely at the media and should not be further distributed to individual and/or corporate investors, and financial advisers and/or distributors. The information included within this document and any supplemental documentation provided should not be copied, reproduced or redistributed without the prior written consent of Atmos Renewables.