Obton secures subordinated debt facility for 30.4 MWp PV Portfolio in France
Denmark based Obton A/S secured a mezzanine-type HoldCo debt facility in an amount of 8 million Euros for PV assets owned by funds under management. The facility with a tenor of 15 years was granted by a UK based infrastructure debt fund. Obton has been advised by Germany based consulting firm Capcora who acted as sole financial advisor in this deal.
Obton raised junior debt for one of its solar PV participations in France. The financing with a maturity date in 2035 was structured in a bond format. The underlying is a diversified portfolio of 18 PV projects with total capacity of
30.4 MWp spread across France – the assets are mainly carport systems for parking lots on industrial sites, train stations or airports. Obton entered the French market in 2013. The assets financed have an average age structure of 5 years and a remaining feed-in-tariff (“FIT”) term of 15 years.
Given the traceable production history, the granularity of the portfolio and the low volatility of PV assets in general the financing structure benefits from a high cashflow visibility. The bond provides a balanced risk-return profile for the mezzanine lender and will be fully amortised over the bond term.
“It is our mission to improve the returns of our investors by continuously scouting for new ways to optimize our portfolios. Mezzanine debt is an extremely interesting instrument for us, which we were able to access thanks to Capcora!”, says Andreas Duckert, Chief Finance Officer at Obton.
“We are proud to have advised Obton on its debut transaction in the mezzanine segment. This deal represents our first PV transaction in France.
The complexity in terms of types of assets,
diversification and cross-border coordination makes it a unique transaction.”,
says Alexander Kuhn, Managing Partner at Capcora
Besides Capcora Obton was advised by Herbert Smith Freehills Paris LLP (Legal), WPO SAS (Technical) and Ernst & Young LLP (model audit).
