- Through the transaction the two companies intend to develop new opportunities opening of the capital market to the energy efficiency of industrial scale
TerniEnergia, a smart energy company active in the fields of renewable energy, energy efficiency, waste and energy management, listed on the Star segment of the Italian Stock Exchange and part of Italeaf Group, and a securitization company controlled by SUSI Partners AG (“SUSI”), managing authority of the SUSI Energy Efficiency Fund, have signed an agreement for the sale without recourse of loans of approximately Euro 1.2 million, paid in cash, related to lighting energy efficiency assets installed by TerniEnergia.
In particular, TerniEnergia operates as ESCOs (Energy Service Company) directly and through the platform “Hub”, a new strategic alliance formula between all players in the energy industry to open up the sector to the capital market. SUSI is a Swiss investment advisor with experience in the financing of sustainable energy infrastructure. Always engaged in supporting long-term European investment into the energy transition, SUSI is also active in the field of energy efficiency systems in Italy.
The agreement signed provides for the sale, without recourse formula, of a TerniEnergia’s loan portfolio arising from private contracts. These credits will be sold to a SPV, regulated under Italian law, related to SUSI Partners AG as part of a securitization of receivables ex L.130 / 99. The nominal value of the receivables involved in the transaction is approximately equal to Euro 1.2 million.
The transaction will allow TerniEnergia to support the growth of the energy saving activity, through the proposal to private companies and public entities with high added value services for the design, implementation and management of interventions to reduce energy consumption in lighting areas (even with proprietary technologies), heat, electricity supply and the plant consumption.
The credit portfolio sale agreement is conditional on the occurrence, by 3 September 2016, of a number of conditions including the finalization and signing of all documents relating to the transaction by the previous Banks lenders of the ESCo projects.
Mr. Stefano Neri, CEO of TerniEnergia stated:
“This is a strategic agreement for TerniEnergia, through the replication of the structure of this sale and securitization to future contracts deriving from the “Hub”, it gives concrete and proof possibility to solve the main problem in the development of energy efficiency, the difficulty of access to the capital market. Thanks to the Hub, TerniEnergia represent itself as subject aggregator of the player involved in the construction of energy efficiency intervention, through a proper project risk management system and business plan assessment, assuming the responsibility. What we look for are not final customers, but energy service providers, from which we receive and which we remunerate services and technologies to facilitate the convergence with the capital market, aggregating and making critical mass”.
Mr. Stefano Fissolo, Vice President at SUSI Energy Efficiency AG, adds:
“Our SUSI Energy Efficiency Fund plays the role of “third lender” in the contracts signed between ESCOs and end customers. The deal just signed is our third in Italy and demonstrates how well the SUSI team is able to identify and evaluate sizes and types of projects normally rejected by investment funds and to aggregate these projects into attractive investments. The SUSI Energy Efficiency Fund intends to further invest in the Italian market for at least the next eighteen months”.
TerniEnergia recalls, finally, that it is ended a three-day roadshow for the presentation of the HUB to the industrial communities of the sector energy efficiency of the center-north Italy. After the presentation of Milan, which took place in February, the company organized a series of events dedicated to the ideal partners of this platform (ESCOs, engineering firms, installers, manufacturers of technologies), which reached the cities of Rome, Turin and Padua with three events dedicated to the creation of a network designed to solve the difficulties of access to finance for energy saving interventions.
Heussen Law and Tax Firm, with a team led by Partner Luca Alberto Pagnotta, has assisted the parties in the transaction definition and negotiation of the contractual documentation.
SUSI Partners AG is a socially and ecologically responsible Swiss Investment Advisor located in Zurich, Frankfurt and Luxembourg that focuses on financing the energy transition and sustainable energy infrastructure. SUSI supports institutional investors with investments in solar and wind parks in Europe, energy efficiency retrofits of existing infrastructure and energy storage solutions. Through its subsidiary, Sustainable Sàrl, SUSI offers fund solutions that yield stable and low-correlated annual distributions, carry low risk and produce a measurable impact on climate change mitigation.
