The Standard Bank, Citi, CDC Group and Norfund have partnered to provide a Ksh. 8 billion (USD 75 million) sustainable finance loan to Greenlight Planet Kenya, an off-grid solar home solutions company.
The loan facility is one of the first sustainability linked deals in Kenya, and one of the largest syndicated sustainable finance deals in the region to be provided in local currency. The transaction will allow Greenlight Planet to expand access to off-grid solar solutions to off-grid communities throughout Kenya through digital financing.
In the partnership, Citi served as the sole coordinator on the transaction. On the other hand, Standard Bank acted as the sustainability coordinator and executed the FX conversion to facilitate the repayment of the parent loan. The loan will minimize Greenlight Planet’s exposure to currency exchange fluctuations, allowing the business to focus on growth, employment, and innovation.
The deal also includes integrating three sustainability linked KPIs to the funding which covered both social and environmental metrics as follows.
- The number of people benefiting from reliable energy financing
- Cumulative avoidance of CO2 emissions
- Ensuring a gender balanced management team
As existing investors in Greenlight Planet, CDC Group and Norfund’s new round of investments aims to incorporate additional private sector capital to scale its operations in Kenya.
Greenlight Planet Kenya is a group company of Greenlight Planet Inc, a designer, distributor and financier of rooftop solar home systems for off-grid and weak-grid homes. Through its network of 200 branches and 8,000 field agents, Greenlight sells its Sun King branded solar energy systems directly to its off-grid residential clients and provides ‘pay-as-you-go’ financing to facilitate their purchase.
Commenting on the partnership, Anneke Lund, Executive at Sustainable Finance at Standard Bank Group said, “We at Standard Bank Group are very happy to announce this first to market transaction for Greenlight Planet Kenya. The business’s ESG strategy sits at the core of its business model, and we are proud to have structured a sustainability linked facility that further highlights these commitments. Driving positive environmental and social impact sits at the heart of our Social, Economic and Environmental impact strategy.”
Michael Mutiga, Managing Director, Head of Corporate Finance, SSA Citi commented, “Off-grid solar home systems are a vital way to expand access to clean energy and to supplement national grids that may not have the reach to help transform the lives of people who are still without electricity. By expanding access to affordable and reliable energy for millions of households in underserved communities, Citi’s financing of Greenlight Planet helps address social, economic and environmental challenges of low-income households in Kenya and beyond as part of our commitment to support social-focused developments in emerging markets.”