M&G Investments completes £247m refinancing for 33 Lightsource solar parks
M&G Investments, Prudential's European asset-management arm, has completed a £247m refinancing for 33 solar parks.
The deal with European solar energy company Lightsource is a 22-year, inflation-linked senior financing (which has repayment priority over other lenders) and brings M&G’s debt investment in the sector to over £385m in the past 12 months.
Lightsource has raised £284m with its advisor RBS, including M&G's investment, and £37m in debt from AMP Capital.
The 33 parks have a total capacity of 100 megawatts, enough to power around 30,600 homes in the UK, saving 43,430 tonnes of CO2 a year.
“Refinancing deals such as this are an essential element in allowing companies within the solar industry to grow and develop,” Paul McCartie, structured finance director at Lightsource, said.
“The industry has certainly come a long way in a very short amount of time and we believe there are still many opportunities for solar in the UK to grow even further.”
The deal is the largest institutional refinancing in the UK sector.
John Mayhew, head of infrastructure finance at M&G, said:
Consolidation within the solar sector is providing investable opportunities for institutional clients. We have structured the deal to deliver inflation-linked returns, with good security to ensure risks are appropriately rewarded.