Ørsted signs guaranteed Green Loan Facility for Greater Changhua Projects

Global offshore wind leader Ørsted today announced the signing of its five-year NTD 25 billion syndicated green revolving loan facility for Greater Changhua projects.

This green facility, guaranteed by Ørsted A/S, attracted a total of fifteen banks to join and provided excellent opportunities to local financial institutions to participate in offshore wind projects with minimal risk exposure. This is the first time that local state-owned banks in Taiwan are involved in financing offshore wind projects, also the first time for all eight state owned banks participated in a green loan facility for offshore wind.

On 30th April 2019, Ørsted made the final investment decision for the Greater Changhua 1+2a projects. Ørsted’s treasury team together with Bank of Taiwan, BNP Paribas and Cathay United Bank, the mandated lead arrangers, subsequently completed a roadshow with local and foreign banks in Taiwan in May. Within less than two months, the deal was finalized with the following fifteen banks joining Ørsted’s NTD 25 billion Green Loan Facility:

Stated owned banks: Bank of Taiwan, Mega International Commercial Bank, Chang Hwa Commercial Bank, Land Bank of Taiwan, Taiwan Cooperative Bank, First Commercial Bank, Hua Nan Commercial Bank, Taiwan Business Bank

Private banks: BNP Paribas, Cathay United Bank, E. Sun Commercial Bank, Taishin International Bank, CTBC Bank, KGI Bank, Deutsche Bank AG

Allan B. Andersen, Senior Vice President for Treasury & Risk Management, said ‘’We are very pleased with the commitment from 15 banks on this transaction, especially the domestic Taiwanese banks. We are proud of this being the first ever green loan facility in Taiwan under our new Green Finance Framework which matches our ambition of doing all of Ørsted’s financing in the green format.”

Ørsted will now start the preparations for a potential green bond issuance in the local market towards the end of this year.

Matthias Bausenwein, President for Ørsted Asia Pacific, said that “This green revolving loan facility provides local financial institutions with an opportunity to tap into the offshore wind industry and boost their confidence in financing offshore wind projects. This is a significant step forward, to bring clean energy to the people in Taiwan. A step jointly taken by Ørsted and local financial institutions.”

Ørsted will fund 50% CAPEX of the Greater Changhua projects by capital contributions from the Ørsted Group combined with debt capital sourced from local Taiwanese financial institutions - backed by a Ørsted A/S parent company guarantee.

About Ørsted in Taiwan

Greater Changhua 1 + 2a offshore wind projects will be located 35 to 50 kilometers off the coast of Changhua County, with a capacity of approx. 900MW, enough to supply around 1 million Taiwanese households with green power. The offshore wind farms will be constructed in 2021 and 2022.
Ørsted is also the co-owner of Taiwan’s first commercial-scale offshore wind project, Formosa 1, which will be extended from its current 8MW capacity to 128MW in 2019. As the world leader in offshore wind, Ørsted has installed more than 1,100 offshore wind turbines with a total capacity of approx. 5.6GW and has a further 4.3GW under construction. It is Ørsted’s ambition to have installed a total offshore wind capacity of 15GW worldwide by 2025.