SWITZERLAND: Solas preps new bridge financing platform
Solas Capital is understood to be preparing a new funding platform focused on providing late-stage development and construction-bridge financing to project developers in selected Eurozone markets.
The group is aiming to provide new options for capital-constrained developers with the euro-denominated vehicle, with deployments being initially targeted in the German, Spanish, Portuguese and Irish markets.
Projects financed by the new platform – which is expected to launch at the beginning of 2025 – will likely initially comprise solar PV developments, potentially with co-located battery storage, but with wind and other technologies also being considered in due course.
Solas will, with the new funding platform, become one of the select few providers of late-stage development debt for projects until they reach ready-to-build stage, but the group will also consider construction-phase financing.
That approach could potentially deliver margins in the high single digits, with an all-in rate for the higher end of that range creeping into low double-digit territory.
Average ticket sizes will likely be in the EUR 10m-20m range, it is understood, while total fundraising targets are yet to be confirmed.
Solas Capital has to date, with its existing EUR 220m Solas Sustainable Energy Fund, largely financed energy efficiency and behind-the-meter PV.
The vehicle closed a low-double-digit million Euro C&I solar deal with Capital Energy earlier in 2024.
*This analysis was originally published exclusively for NPM Europe subscribers.
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