18th December 2020
TRIG has extended and increased its revolving credit facility (“RCF”) at lower margins.
The new £500m three-year facility will support TRIG’s investments, enabling it to acquire renewable energy infrastructure assets prior to raising share capital. Its increased size over the previous £340m facility reflects the increase in the scale of acquisitions being made by TRIG.
In a first for the sector, and underscoring the Company’s leadership credentials within ESG, InfraRed (the Company’s Investment Manager) has negotiated for the lenders to vary the cost of the facility depending on TRIG’s ESG performance. TRIG will incur an adjustment to its margin and commitment fee based on performance against defined sustainability targets with a potential 5bps reduction in fees available. Those targets include:
- Environmental: increase in the number of homes powered by clean energy
- Social: increase in the number of community funds supported by TRIG
- Governance: maintaining a low Lost Time Accident Frequency Rate (LTAFR)
The LTAFR is a key metric monitored by asset owners that measures the number of personnel injured and unable to perform their normal duties for seven days or more for each hundred thousand hours worked. The inclusion of this target aligns the cost of the renewed RCF with a key metric for TRIG: safety at work.
Performance against these targets will be measured annually with the cost of the RCF being amended in the following year.
Furthermore, the facility is one of the first where the margin is linked to SONIA (‘Sterling Overnight Index Average’) which will be replacing LIBOR. Euro drawings will remain at EURIBOR.
“We’re very proud to have secured one of the first ESG-linked SONIA loans. We have set ourselves ambitious but achievable targets for the next few years which underline our commitment to sustainability and align our interests with our debt and equity investors.”
Helen Mahy CBE, Chairman of TRIG
“This expanded loan facility will allow us to take full advantage of our promising pipeline and provide even more clean energy to more homes across our core markets. TRIG is committed to supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy and investing for the future benefit of our shareholders.”
Richard Crawford, Director, Infrastructure at InfraRed Capital Partners
