CarbonFree Portfolio of PMGD Solar Projects

On August 11, 2022, Connor, Clark & Lunn Infrastructure Ltd. (“CC&L Infrastructure”) and CarbonFree Technology Inc. (“CarbonFree”) announced the closing of approximately US$360 million in debt financing facilities for their portfolio of 53 utility-scale solar projects located in Chile, which operate under Chile's special regime for distributed generation projects ("PMGD").

The debt financing is comprised of

• a US$19 million letter of credit facility
• a US$71 million bridge-loan facility, which will be used to fund ongoing construction costs
• an approximately US$270 million private placement facility which will be used primarily to refinance existing bank debt and repay the bridge-loan facility once projects complete construction

Natixis CIB acted as lead placement agent and green issuance coordinator for the private placement and as sole bookrunner, sole underwriter and green loan coordinator for the bridge-loan and the letter of credit facilities.

Since making their initial investment in Chile in 2017, CC&L Infrastructure and CarbonFree have significantly expanded their portfolio, with 37 individual ground-mounted solar projects in operation (totaling more than 250 MW) and a further 16 projects currently under construction or expected to begin construction shortly (totaling around 110 MW). Forecast to be fully operating by the second half of 2023, once fully operational the portfolio will total approximately 360 MW of generation capacity.

To date, the transaction represents the largest PMGD portfolio to be financed, both in terms of installed capacity and number of projects.

Further information can be found on Canada Newswire’s website.

CC&L Infrastructure invests in middle-market infrastructure assets with attractive risk-return characteristics, long lives and the potential to generate stable cash flows. To date, it has accumulated over C$5 billion in assets under management diversified across a variety of geographies, sectors, and asset types, with over 90 underlying facilities across over 30 individual investments.

CarbonFree is a member of the CarbonFree Group of Companies based in Toronto, Canada and Santiago, Chile. It develops, finances, manages construction, operates and owns solar projects and is active in Canada, the United States and Latin America.