QIC-owned Pacific Energy has raised $370 million (USD 240 million) in fresh equity and secured a new $400 million debt facility, upsizing its total debt capacity to $1.6 billion as the company looks to advance a “robust pipeline” of renewable energy projects throughout Australia.
Perth-based Pacific Energy has a diversified portfolio of renewable and hybrid solutions comprising 946 MW across 48 sites and five states and territories and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Cullen said the new debt facility and equity raise provide the company with about $1 billion to support its continued growth.
“The successful upsizing of Pacific Energy’s debt facilities and equity raise mark a significant milestone in supporting our strategic growth ambitions, including our continuing east coast expansion,” he said.
“This boost to our growth capital puts us in a strong position to advance our robust pipeline of renewable energy projects and take full advantage of the increasing opportunities in Australia’s transition to a low-carbon economy.”
The company said 15 banks signed off on the $1.6 billion debt package, including new lenders ANZ, Export Finance Australia, Societe Generale, DNB Bank, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, and DBS.
Pacific Energy Chief Financial Officer Todd Perkins said the support “reflects strong market confidence in our business model and the strength of our portfolio.”
“This syndication drew strong interest from a diverse group of lenders, and we’re pleased to see the firm backing from both our existing lenders and seven new banks of Pacific Energy’s growth strategy,” he said.
Pacific Energy said the refinancing was complemented by continued support from Brisbane-based QIC and its institutional clients. The new $370 million equity raise takes the total amount of capital raised over the past 18 months to $500 million.
The investment arm of the Queensland state government, QIC acquired Pacific Energy for $422 million in 2019.
QIC Senior Principal and Pacific Energy asset manager Matthew Zwi said since then Pacific Energy has invested heavily in its capabilities through a series of value-chain acquisitions, creating a highly specialised, vertically integrated remote energy platform with full in-house capability to design, construct, commission and operate hybrid renewable power projects.”
“The combination of these specialised capabilities and significant levels of prevailing demand for renewable and hybrid solutions in Australia’s remote energy sector have driven material growth in Pacific Energy’s portfolio,” he said.
“As the business has grown, it has also matured as an infrastructure investment. With this growth capital raise completed and the business competitively refinanced, Pacific Energy is well positioned to capitalise on customer demand and deliver its growth pipeline, which includes a range of renewable and hybrid projects in Western Australia as well as on the east coast.”
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.