UAE’s Sirajpower Secures a $50 Million Portfolio Debt Financing From APICORp

SirajPower, UAE’s leading distributed solar energy provider, today announced it has signed a $50 million long-term non-recourse credit facility for solar distributed generation from The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP), an energy-focused multilateral development financial institution. This will be the GCC’s largest lease-funding platform for distributed solar energy. With this financing facility, SirajPower proves the bankability and sustainability of its business model and adds another milestone by completing a first-of-its-kind debt-financing transaction for distributed solar energy in the Middle East.

Distributed solar energy comprises individual power generation systems that can be both grid-connected or off-grid. In the past, these types of projects lacked sufficient scale to attract debt financing, which has limited the development of this market segment in the region. To overcome this challenge, SirajPower and APICORP have partnered to develop an innovative structure to finance an entire portfolio of distributed solar projects on a long-term, non-recourse basis. The funding will make it possible for SirajPower to expand its offering to businesses across various sectors, enabling them to save on their utility bills whilst simultaneously offsetting their carbon footprint.

Laurent Longuet, CEO of SirajPower said: “Bringing on board APICORP is a fundamental step in validating the quality of work that we have been delivering over the last five years in the UAE and opening the door for continued expansion in other markets and geographies. To date, our key market differentiators have been our fully integrated offering coupled with our active shareholders and strong local footprint. This green financing further sets us apart from our competition by enabling us to expand even faster. We are committed to ensuring the availability of clean energy across the region.”

Dr Ahmed Ali Attiga, CEO of APICORP said: “We are pleased to be working with SirajPower on bringing world class technologies to the region. SirajPower’s business model is promising of more innovations to come along in the energy efficiency space and we look forward to being part of its future success. As the trusted financial partner to the energy sector, the partnership with SirajPower demonstrates APICORP’s commitment to being a leading catalyst for the sustainable development in the region.”

Mohammed Abdulghaffar Hussain, Chairman of SirajPower and Creek Capital Ltd., said: “We established SirajPower to act as a platform for renewable energy investments and enable our investors to diversify away from traditional industries and utilize their capital to play an active role in reducing the impact of climate change. The platform provides stable and attractive long-term returns whilst simultaneously supporting the UAE and the wider region’s sustainable development goals.”

“We have been fortunate to grow rapidly since our inception in 2015, thanks to a timely and progressive set of regulations in Dubai, the highly skilled and hardworking team at SirajPower and a motivated group of early adopters. The market is full of potential, and we are gearing up to the next phase of a promising and rapid development across the wider Middle East region. Our partnership with APICORP is a testament not only to the bank’s innovative approach to financing but also to their keen desire to play a key role in the region’s burgeoning green economy.”

Creek Capital is a Dubai-based sustainable infrastructure asset manager licensed and regulated by the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC). In addition to SirajPower, Creek Capital’s portfolio includes Taka Solutions, an energy efficiency company that uses advanced engineering, technology and financing to help clients reduce their energy consumption. Creek Capital recently launched Argo Energy, a small-scale solar project development company based in South Korea and is actively pursuing opportunities for the development of waste management and water infrastructure projects across the Middle East.

Squire Patton Boggs (MEA) LLP acted as APICORP’s legal advisor on this deal, kiloWattsol SAS acted as the technical advisor and INDECS Consulting Ltd. acted as the insurance advisor.