Europe Deals of the Year 2023: Going large for the energy transition
A year when commercial banks got more comfortable with spiky credits - and ECAs took market share on the biggest deals
Readers of Proximo’s sister publication TXF probably already knew this, but export credit agency cover is now much more of a developed market financing tool than one designed around the needs of emerging markets.
The export finance market has been ecstatic about the updates to the new OECD Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits, which generally allowed for more generous terms for financings for renewables and other climate change mitigation technologies. The results in the European project finance market have been clear: three of this year’s Deal of the Year winners, which are also three of the four largest winners, featured a strong ECA component.
There’s no doubt that this ECA support was immensely useful, given that it supported the first offshore wind farm in Poland, the first project financed gigafactory in Europe, and the first green steel plant anywhere. All of these are supporting decarbonisation where it is most desperately needed.
Elsewhere there are signs of a commercial bank market becoming more flexible and useful - in supporting a solar construction portfolio, an EV infrastructure roll-out programme, and the continued operation of a CCGT plant essential to the UK’s energy stability. There’s even a rare European mine financing, for a greek gold project.
These winning financings - as well as Proximo’s leading banks and law firms - will be recognised at a special session at Proximo Global 2024 on 11 June in Athens. There will be a chance to hear more about many of the winning deals during the preceding sessions.
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The list of winning European deals is as follows...
Europe Offshore Wind - Baltic Power
Baltic is a €4.2 billion, 20-year first financing for a Polish offshore wind farm. DFIs and ECAs were crucial to assembling such a large and long-dated financing in a new jurisdiction.
Europe Solar - Sonnedix Ponte
The warehouse construction financing, so common in the US, arrives in Europe, with a €500 million facility that can be disbursed in multiple jurisdictions and currencies. The deal, which does not require every asset to be contracted, will allow Sonnedix to expand in the UK, Spain and Italy at a rapid clip.
Europe Digital Infrastructure - DigitalBridge GD Towers Acquisition
Digital Bridge and Brookfield took majority control of Deutsche Telekom’s German and Austrian towers business using the sector’s largest acquisition financing to date. Germany’s tower sector was able to comfortably outshine broadband in 2023, and attracted a very strong response in both underwriting and syndication.
Europe Transport - Gridserve Electric Super Hubs
Gridserve closed the largest ever financing for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, funding the installation of 3,700 new points in the UK, and refinancing existing assets. It used its strong track record to persuade lenders to accept merchant risk, and benefits from an accordion feature if it can roll out its network according to plan.
Europe Refinancing - West Burton B Refinancing
Financings for combined-cycle gas turbine plants in Europe are now very rare, but EIG assembled a diverse seven-strong bank group to refinance its relatively youthful West Burton B gas-fired plant (and associated battery) in the UK. The financing uses a cash sweep to deal with potentially volatile revenues, leaving the plant free to compensate for, and profit from, intermittent renewable generation.
Europe Mining - Skouries Gold and Copper
Eldorado Gold closed the first major financing for a Greek mining project with the €680 million debt package for its Skouries asset. The package broke ground in hedging, construction risk management, and combining operating and greenfield assets, not to mention combining commercial bank debt and support from the Green government
Europe Emerging Energy - AESC Douai Gigafactory
AESC fleshed out its bid to leap into the top rank of global battery manufacturers with a a first non-recourse deal for a French gigafactory. The deal combined DFI and ECA support (including a domestic first for BpiFrance) with senior commercial bank and subordinated debt.
Europe Manufacturing - H2 Green Steel
The H2GS project combined a large but well-known and strong group of sponsors with a large but well-known and strong group of offtakers to show how it is possible to make a big dent in the emissions of Europe’s manufacturing sector. A large cast of government, DFI and commercial bank supporters came in behind this pathfinder green hydrogen-to-steel project.
