LONDON: Aquila European Renewables Income Fund announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Tesseract Holdings Limited has reached contractual close in relation to a two year, EUR 40 million secured revolving credit facility (RCF).
Lenders under the RCF include ING Bank N.V. and The Royal Bank of Scotland International Limited.
As outlined in the Company’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) prospectus, the Company may make use of short-term debt, such as a revolving credit facility, to assist with the acquisition of suitable opportunities as and when they become available. Under the prospectus, such short-term debt will be subject to a separate gearing limit so as not to exceed 25 per cent of the Gross Asset Value at the time of entering into (or acquiring) any such short-term debt.
The RCF has a margin of 1.85% over EURIBOR. The facility also benefits from additional flexibility, subject to bank consent and certain conditions, including:
· an accordion option which enables the Company to upsize the facility limit up to EUR 100 million; and
· an extension option, which allows the RCF tenor to be extended by a further two years.
Ian Nolan, Chairman of the Company, said: “We are pleased to announce this important milestone today. The RCF will provide significant flexibility for the Company to fund its growth in a capital efficient manner going forward. We believe the RCF is a further endorsement of the Company’s asset portfolio and success in deploying capital since the IPO.”
Commenting on today’s announcement, Michael Anderson, Senior Manager at Aquila Capital, the investment adviser: “We are delighted to reach contractual close in relation to the RCF, given its strategic importance for the Company. We thank the banks for their support and look forward to proactively utilising the RCF to support our promising pipeline of opportunities.”