KENYA: CDC, Norfund, Standard and Citi Provide $75 Million Credit to Greenlight

Posted on : Thursday, 18th November 2021

British investor CDC Group is partnering with Norfund, Standard Bank and Citi to open a $75 million line of credit for Greenlight Planet Kenya, the subsidiary of Greenlight Planet. The company will use the local currency financing to accelerate the deployment of its solar home systems in Kenya.

 

Good news for Greenlight Planet. The Kenyan subsidiary of the solar home systems provider now has a USD 75 million local currency (Kenyan shilling) line of credit. The credit is provided by CDC Group, the British government’s development finance institution, and Norfund, a private equity firm owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 

In arranging this line of credit, U.S. financial firm Citi acted as the “sole coordinator” of the transaction, while Standard Bank acted as the sustainability coordinator and executed the currency conversion to facilitate repayment of the parent loan, which contributed to the financing in Kenyan shillings. In addition, Dentons acted as the lender’s legal advisor on the transaction and Power Africa provided legal support and advice to Greenlight Planet on the transaction, assisting with the negotiation and review of the financing and collateral documents.