GRV Secures €62.9 Million Green Loan from UniCredit for Six Solar Plants

GRV Assets 2 srl, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GR Value spa, a leading Italian company in the construction and management of renewable energy generation plants, has secured a €62.9 million loan from UniCredit. The loan, certified green under the Green Loan Principles and supported by the SACE green guarantee, is intended to support the construction and commissioning costs of six new solar renewable energy generation plants located in Basilicata, Puglia, and Sicily.

The transaction, a green loan mini-perm project financing structured across several cash and unsecured credit lines for grid-parity greenfield solar projects, was structured by UniCredit as Global Coordinator & Bookrunner, Structuring Mandated Lead Arranger, Original Lender and Hedging Bank, Agent Bank, SACE Agent and Banca dei Conti.

The financing, backed by SACE’s green guarantee, will support the construction of 60 MWp solar plants in southern Italy, advancing GRV’s renewable energy expansion and Italy’s energy transition goals

The financing of GRV follows a similar €50.5 million one announced last January. Unicredit had also finalized a green loan project financing with a SACE guarantee for GR Value Assets srl , a holding company wholly owned by GR Value spa, which owns the special purpose vehicle GR Value Ferrandina srl, which is developing a wind farm for renewable energy production in Basilicata, in the province of Materam in the municipalities of Ferrandina, Salandra and Garaguso, with a total installed capacity of 32 MW (see another BeBeez article ).

Legance – Avvocati Associati acted as legal advisor for this new transaction, while Vector Renewables srl and Marsh spa acted as technical-environmental and insurance consultants, respectively. KPMG Advisory spa acted as model auditor. GRV was assisted by the Energy team at Gitti and Partners with regard to financing documents, corporate aspects, and project contracts.

The portfolio has a total installed capacity of over 60 MWp and an expected annual production of approximately 114 GWh, sufficient to meet the annual energy needs of over 42,000 Italian households. Once operational, the plants will avoid climate-altering emissions of over 30,000 tons of CO₂ equivalent annually.

Considering the plants’ useful life of approximately thirty years, this will correspond to savings of over 800,000 tons of CO₂ equivalent, which will be avoided in the atmosphere. The plants are currently under construction and are expected to enter into operation by 2026. The energy produced will be sold to a leading national energy player with an investment-grade rating, based on a twenty-year PPA.

Gianluca Veneroni, CEO of GRV, stated: “This important new financing transaction to support the construction of our pipeline of wind, solar, and energy storage systems consolidates a mutually satisfying relationship with UniCredit and a well-established path to achieving the goals set out in our business plan.”

She continued: “This transaction involves a leading Italian bank with a strong relationship with innovative green finance solutions, with the crucial support of SACE, and confirms the GRV team’s ability to quickly and effectively implement challenging projects. All this comes at such a critical time in history, when the fight against climate change and energy independence are increasingly becoming top-priority strategic objectives. We are therefore proud to be able to contribute, through our projects, to the energy transition in Italy and Europe, towards a more secure and sustainable energy future.”

Marica Campilongo, Head of Large Corporates at UniCredit Italy, said: “UniCredit has made a concrete commitment to the transition to a green and sustainable economy by providing both financial and advisory support to clients who want to invest in transforming their production models. This further transaction in favor of the GRV group demonstrates our shared commitment to the company’s growth path and our commitment to providing clients with innovative, tailor-made solutions that can have a positive impact on the country’s energy independence and stability through renewable energy sources and long-term energy storage systems, in line with European and national programs.”

GRV focuses on renewable energy generation plants, from the project’s origination (greenfield or in operation), through its development, authorization, construction, and efficient management, including the sale of electricity on the market.

Specifically, GRV acquires small and medium-sized photovoltaic plants and aggregates them into 10-20 MW clusters, improving their performance ratios; builds photovoltaic systems on the roofs of industrial/commercial facilities to sell electricity to underlying users under long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs); develops utility-scale greenfield wind and photovoltaic projects; and acquires projects that have obtained or are in the process of obtaining the necessary authorizations for construction and operation.

In November 2023, alongside the Swiss asset manager Swiss Life Asset Managers, GRV had received three loans from ING for a total value of over 140 million euros, backed by SACE ‘s green guarantee , in order to install a capacity of more than 330MW of wind and photovoltaic energy in Italy.

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(Featured image by Manny Becerra via Unsplash)

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