ACEN Corp. and the BIM Group, through their respective subsidiaries, received financial support amounting to $107 million from various lenders.
The power arm of conglomerate Ayala Corp. said Tuesday the financing package was arranged and syndicated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as mandated lead arranger and bookrunner. The lending group comprised of ADB, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Limited, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., ING Bank, and Cathay United Bank.
The amount is meant to support the two companies’ first wind project and second joint venture in Vietnam, the 88 MW Ninh Thuan wind farm located in South Central Vietnam.
“This major boost on our wind farm’s financing from Asia and the Pacific’s climate bank and ACEN’s long-standing financing partner, ADB, and our other parallel lenders will help catalyze renewable energy build-up capacity by 2030.
It sends an important message to the market to scale up climate-resilient investments with sufficient speed to help deliver our respective Net Zero goals,” said ACEN international CEO Patrice Clausse.
Aside from the $107 million, ADB will also provide the Ninh Thuan wind farm an additional $5 million from the Climate Innovation and Development Fund backed by Goldman Sachs and Bloomberg Philanthropies. The grant will be used for initiatives to safeguard environmental and social risk.
ACEN and the BIM Group jointly developed the Ninh Thuan wind farm, which commenced operations in September 2021. It is expected to produce 339GWh of renewable energy per year that can help avoid 215,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
“We are very honored to receive financing from a leading financial development institution in Asia as well as international commercial banks. We have worked very hard with the ADB and other lenders to meet international standards, especially in regard to environmental, social, and governance.
The success of this transaction supports Viet Nam’s transition to a low carbon economy. We continue to pursue our mission toward the sustainable development of clean energy in Vietnam,” said BIM Group’s vice chairman Doan Quoc Huy.