Business
Canadian Solar Wins Green Project Bond of the Year Award by Environmental Finance
GUELPH, ON, April 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Canadian Solar Inc. (the "Company", or "Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ) today announced that it has won
About this update from Canadian Solar Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"GUELPH, ON, April 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Canadian Solar Inc. (the \"Company\", or \"Canadian Solar\") (NASDAQ: CSIQ) today announced that it has won Environmental Finance's Green Project Bond of the Year award for its JPY 18.5 billion green samurai private placement.\n\nCanadian Solar completed its three-year, JPY 18.5 billion ($120 million) private placement in 2023. The innovative bond enhances liquidity and flexibility, empowering Canadian Solar's global development business, Recurrent Energy, to grow its solar and battery energy storage projects under development and asset management business.\nEnvironmental Finance is an industry-leading global publication established in 1999. Its annual Sustainable Debt Awards celebrate leading green, social, sustainable and sustainability-linked bond and loan deals and recognize market innovations.\nA Sustainable Debt Awards judge commended Canadian Solar's transaction, noting that while \"securitizations of solar assets are common in the market\", the deal was additive because it enabled the issuer to tap into a wider pool of investors than it previously had done. Environmental Finance also praised the deal for enabling Canadian Solar to \"plug into the ultra-low interest rate environment in Japan, where long-term, fixed-rate products are scarce.\"\nThe Japan Credit Rating Agency, Ltd. (\"JCR\") not only assigned this structured bond an investment grade rating of \"A-,\" but also certified the issuer with the highest Green 1 rating under the Japanese Green Bond guidelines. Orix Bank Corporation was designated as the trustee of the bond, and Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd. (\"GS\") served as the lead arranger and sole book runner with domestic bond investors.\nThis is the second green project bond of the year award Canadian Solar has received from Environmental Finance, following the one awarded in 2018 for Canadian Solar's JPY5.4 billion ($47 million) Gunma Aramaki project bond placement with Goldman Sachs Japan.\nDr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar, commented, \"We are honored to again receive the Green Project Bond of the Year, acknowledging our innovative financing strategies for our global development business. Recurrent Energy continues to expand in response to growing global demand in renewable energy, supported by its proven track record in solar and battery energy st...