African lender, Vantage Capital, announced that it launched its inaugural renewable energy debt fund. The Vantage GreenX Fund raised $215 million from a number of South African pension funds, and will be managed by an experienced team within Vantage focusing on project finance, banking, debt capital markets, and technical expertise.
Vantage GreenX seeks to capitalize on three major trends: South Africa’s large-scale renewable energy program; regulation; and infrastructure expansion. Institutional investors will need to play a major role in the financing of these programs to ensure the ambitious targets set by government are achieved. The GreenX fund’s mandate will be to invest in the senior debt of projects that were awarded as part of the South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPP). The fund will seek to invest in projects with strong sponsors, good locations and technologies with relevant commercial track-records. In addition to these requirements the fund will also take into consideration the manner in which the project is structured so as to ensure that local communities do in fact benefit from the projects that Vantage are investing in.
The Vantage GreenX Fund will launch with seven project investments in its carefully vetted portfolio. These projects were all awarded during the first or second bidding rounds of the REIPPP. The portfolio comprises of both solar and wind projects from a variety of different suppliers and sponsors.
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