Norway’s NBT and France’s Total Eren have finalized an agreement on the second phase of the project financing of construction of the 250 MW Syvash wind farm (Kherson region) in the amount of EUR 107.6 million, INTEGRITES law firm, which advised the companies, has said in a press release. According to the law firm, this financing agreement was signed with a syndicate of development banks including Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (EUR 30 million), Proparco (ca. EUR 42 million), Finnfund and IFU (EUR 15 million each), and the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) (EUR 5 million).
All in all, the financing put into place for the whole project reaches EUR 262.6 million. The first phase of financing included a loan of up to EUR 155 million led by EBRD. EBRD’s loan consisted of EUR 75 million, Green for Growth Fund (GGF) and the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) provided EUR 75 million, while a parallel loan of EUR 5 million was provided by the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO).
In addition, AlGihaz, a Saudi Arabian conglomerate, recently took a minority stake in the project alongside Total Eren.
INTEGRITES has advised NBT and Total Eren on all issues within Ukrainian law. In particular, INTEGRITES’ advise included negotiations with the abovementioned international banks, support on the local statutory requirements and communication of project related matters with the National Bank of Ukraine.
“We welcome the closing of the first large-scale project finance in renewable energy In Ukraine. Signing of the second segment with four new international financial institutions and one new co-shareholder on board speaks for the quality of the project and continuing high interest of foreign investors, making a great contribution to increasing of investment into Ukraine,” Managing Partner at INTEGRITES Oleksiy Feliv said.
UDP Renewables, responsible for development of projects in the renewable energy sphere of the UFuture Group of businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky, plans to implement two projects in the wind energy sphere and retains plans to build solar power plants with a total power capacity of 200 MW. “We are considering two projects that we will implement in the wind energy sector. In the future, I will tell you more specifically when we start building,” Khmelnytsky said in a blitz interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
In addition, according to him, the company maintains plans to build energy projects with a total capacity of 200 MW in Ukraine for 2018-2019, but further plans for the development of these projects will depend on the feed-in tariff.
“We do not change the plan now. We want to build 200 MW. Today we are building 100 MW. That is, we are continuing as planned: we are building five projects in Odesa, Zaporizhia, Kherson and other regions,” the businessman said.
Partners in these projects, in addition to Spain’s Acciona Energia Global, are Slovak and Ukrainian companies.
Earlier UDP Renewables announced its plans to implement energy projects with a capacity of 200 MW in southern regions of Ukraine in 2018-2019. There are two launched solar power plants: Dymerska Solar Power Plant 1 in Kyiv region with a capacity of 6 MW and Free-Energy-Henichesk solar power plant with a capacity of 18.3 MW in Kherson region.
UFuture Investment Group, headquartered in Brussels, was established in autumn 2017 and united the business projects of Khmelnytsky. The group includes the Ukrainian development company UDP, whose specialization is the implementation of large infrastructure projects. In addition, the conglomerate united businesses in such areas as UDP Renewables, the Bila Tserkva industrial park, the innovation parks UNIT.City, and LvivTech.City.
Norway’s NBT has enough potential to build an additional 700-800 MW of wind power capacities in Ukraine, the Office of the National Investment Council of Ukraine has reported, referring to NBT CEO Joar Viken speaking at a meeting of the National Investment Council of Ukraine in Davos (Switzerland). “The 250 MW Syvash wind farm is just the start of our plans to invest a considerable amount of capital in our large pipeline of wind projects in Ukraine over the next two to three years,” the Office said in a press release, citing Viken.
Viken said that NBT plans to build a new wind farm in Ukraine. Preliminarily it is planned to start the project in Zaporizhia region in the coming six or nine months. The company said that now it is evaluating engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors and suppliers of wind turbines, which will be involved in the project.
Viken said that success of the Syvash project thanks to the attraction of international project financing would be interesting for other private commercial investors and international financial institutions (IFIs).
“In addition, we foresee potential interest for ‘green bonds’ to financing NBT’s pipeline of new wind projects in Ukraine,” Viken said.
As reported, at a meeting of the National Investment Council in Davos an agreement was signed between the Norwegian company NBT, the French company Total-Eren and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) regarding the Syvash Wind Farm Project with a financing of EUR 260 million raised. Over EUR 350 million will be invested in the project. The project will be financed in the amount of EUR 150 million by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development together with a consortium of banks, Head of the Office of the National Investment Council Yuliya Kovaliv said.
According to the framework agreement, the Syvash Project is planned to be financed by a syndicate of eight foreign lenders, including the EBRD and the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO). At the next stages of the project, additional financing from foreign funds specializing in similar energy projects is also expected.
According to the release, the funds were raised with the assistance of the U.S. investment bank J.P.Morgan, which acted as financial advisor to NBT. The Ukrainian legal adviser to NBT is Integrites, and the advisory assistance was also provided by the Natsinvestset office.
“In Ukraine, the real boom of alternative energy continues. In 2018, three times more capacity was launched than in the entire period of 2017 – more than 800 MW,” Kovaliv said.
