CREC secures financing from RCBC

CITICORE Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC) and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) sealed a financing deal worth P20 billion to help CREC achieve its goal of having one gigawatt (GW) of solar energy capacity this year.

“The financing deal, arranged by RCBC Capital Corp., is slated to reach up to P20 billion in funding, starting with the signing of an initial tranche of P9 billion. The structure is believed to be the first-of-its-kind project financing in the Philippines, which covers various project portfolios instead of the typical per-project financing structure,” CREC said in a statement Monday.

The amount will support multiple solar power plant projects with a combined installed generating capacity of at least 600Mwdc and up to approximately 1GW of solar energy capacity.

The proceeds of the initial funding tranche will be applied towards CREC’S development of certain solar power plant projects in Batangas, Pampanga, and Negros Occidental.

The proceeds of subsequent tranches will be applied towards the completion of additional solar power projects in or additional generating capacity from CREC’S pipeline of projects in various stages of development.

“RCBC’S support will assist us to fulfill our 1-GW target for this year,” said CREC President Oliver Tan. “We thank RCBC for their trust in us and we will endeavor to meet our goals with excellence.”

The solar power plant projects in Batangas, Pampanga and Negros Occidental

are integral to CREC’S target of contributing 1GW of ready-tobuild/under construction solar energy capacity per year over the next five years. The expected commercial operation dates for the first and second phases of the Negros Occidental project are in September 2024 and 2025, respectively.

Meanwhile, the expected commercial operation dates for the first and second phases of each of the Batangas and Pampanga projects are in December 2024 and 2025, respectively.