The Board of TRIG is has announced that the company has refinanced and expanded its revolving credit facility (RCF) at lower rates to support its investment in new renewable energy projects. The facility is used by the Company for short-term financing of acquisitions. The renewed RCF of £500m has been made available to TRIG for a three-year term and the larger size of the facility reflects the increased scale of acquisitions being made by the Company. TRIG’s intention remains to refinance drawings under the RCF through the proceeds of equity issuance. The RCF is currently undrawn.
The interest charged in respect of the renewed RCF is linked to the Company’s ESG performance. TRIG will incur a premium or reduction to its margin and commitment fee based on performance against defined sustainability targets. Those targets include:
- Environmental: increase in the number of homes powered by clean energy from TRIG’s portfolio
- Social: increase in the number of community funds supported by TRIG
- Governance: maintaining a low Lost Time Accident Frequency Rate (LTAFR)
The LTAFR is a key metric monitored by asset owners that measures the number of personnel injured and unable to perform their normal duties for seven days or more for each hundred thousand hours worked. The inclusion of this target aligns the cost of the renewed RCF with a key metric for TRIG: safety at work.
Performance against these targets will be measured annually with the cost of the RCF being amended in the following year.
The facility duration is three years to 31 December 2023. The consortium of lenders includes the existing lenders (National Australia Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland International and ING) and three new participants (Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Barclays and Santander). The margin can vary between 184bps (basis points) and 194bps over SONIA (‘Sterling Overnight Index Average’) for Sterling drawings, and 180 bps and 190bps over EURIBOR for Euro drawings, depending on the Company’s performance against its ESG targets.
Richard Crawford, director, Infrastructure at InfraRed Capital Partners, said, “This expanded loan facility will allow us to take full advantage of our promising pipeline and provide even more clean energy to more homes across our core markets. TRIG is committed to supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy and investing for the future benefit of our shareholders.”
Helen Mahy CBE, chairman of TRIG, said, “We’re very proud to have secured one of the first ESG-linked SONIA loans. We have set ourselves ambitious but achievable targets for the next few years which underline our commitment to sustainability and align our interests with our debt and equity investors.”
