Investec and Nedbank are joint mandated lead arrangers on a R1.8bn senior debt loan for a solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant in South Africa’s Northern Cape.

The project consists of the construction and operation of a solar PV facility with a total net contracted capacity of 74MW. The facility will be constructed on a 620 hectare site 17km north-west of the town of Kathu.

Primary shareholders on the project Acciona Energy South Africa and Aveng Africa will sell the full generated capacity of the plant to Eskom under a 20-year power purchase agreement.

The project will be ring-fenced in a special purpose vehicle, Windfall 59 Properties.

The investment into the renewable energy space is not a first for either of the banks. The plant is one of three in which Investec and one of five in which Nedbank have been involved in as mandated lead arrangers during the second round of the South African government’s renewable energy independent power producer procurement’s (REIPPP) programme.

Sakkie Leimecke, head of energy finance at Nedbank Capital comments: “Together with Investec and our clients, Acciona and Aveng, we are contributing to the vision of a South Africa powered by renewable energy which through the closure of this transaction is increasingly becoming a reality. The buy-in by banks to the entire REIPPP programme, and the support that they will undoubtedly continue to offer, demonstrates the understanding by the country’s financial institutions that we can, together with our clients, have a profoundly positive influence on environmental sustainability.”