Italian solar portfolio refinanced for US$1.2 billion

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Enel Green Power and the F2i infrastructure fund, joint owners of Gruppo EF Solare Italia (EF), a leading photovoltaic operator in Italy, have announced the signing of an agreement to refinance EF’s debt with a pool of credit institutions.

Banca IMI (Intesa Sanpaolo Group), BNP Paribas Italian Branch, Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank – Milan Branch, ING Bank NV – Milan Branch and UniCredit, with support from Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, will provide a total of EUR1.02 billion (US$1.24 billion) of new debt in the form of a non-recourse project financing arrangement.

The refinancing consolidates EF’s growth over the past few years and enables the company, acting through EF Kosmos - a wholly owned subsidiary that controls all the companies owning the plants involved in the transaction - to optimise the terms and conditions of the credit lines, to rationalise its corporate structure and to support the future growth of the Group.

EF's portfolio currently contains 123 solar photovoltaic power plants in 14 regions and an installed capacity of almost 400 MW, making it one of the largest photovoltaics developers in Italy.

EF is an equal joint venture between Enel Green Power and F2i, established in October 2015. Under the initial agreement, Enel contributed 105 MW of PV assets to EF's portfolio through its subsidiary Altomonte FV S.r.l. F2i  contributed an additional 105 MW of PV assets that were held by F2i Solare 1 S.r.l. and F2i Solare 3 S.r.l., subsidiaries of F2i Energie Rinnovabili S.r.l.