ACEN’s Vietnam wind farm gets $107 million financing package

MANILA, Philippines — ACEN Corp. and the BIM Group have secured a $107 million financing package from Asian Development Bank (ADB) and parallel lenders for their wind project in Vietnam, which started commercial operations in 2021.

ACEN said the 88-megawatt (MW) Ninh Thuan wind farm located in South Central Vietnam received an innovative $107 million financing package from the ADB and parallel lenders “in support of the plant’s operations and the partners’ common goal to aid the country reach its climate action targets.”

The project financing is arranged and syndicated by ADB as mandated lead arranger and bookrunner.

The lending group is comprised of ADB, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Hong Kong Mortgage Corp. Ltd., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., ING Bank and Cathay United Bank.

ADB will also grant Ninh Thuan wind farm an additional $5 million grant from the Goldman Sachs and Bloomberg Philanthropies-backed Climate Innovation and Development Fund.

ACEN said the grant would be used for initiatives to safeguard environmental and social risk.

“Energy demand in Vietnam has grown rapidly even during the pandemic, and it is crucial that this demand be met through clean energy that will drive sustainable economic growth. This project is a crucial step toward Vietnam’s resilience and ongoing recovery by further expanding the country’s renewable energy mix and contributing to its net-zero targets,” said Jackie Surtani, ADB private sector operations department infrastructure finance division director for East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific.

The Ninh Thuan wind farm commenced operations in September 2021.

The wind farm is the second joint project of ACEN and the BIM Group following the 405-MW Ninh Thuan solar farm, one of the largest solar farms in Southeast Asia.

“This major boost on our wind farm’s financing from Asia and the Pacific’s climate bank and ACEN’s long-standing financing partner, ADB, and our other parallel lenders will help catalyze renewable energy build-up capacity by 2030,” ACEN international CEO Patrice Clausse said.

“It sends an important message to the market to scale up climate-resilient investments with sufficient speed to help deliver our respective Net Zero goals,” Clausse said.

ACEN is the listed energy platform of diversified group Ayala, with an 18 GW development portfolio throughout Asia-Pacific.

ACEN aims to become the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia, with a goal of reaching 20 GW in renewables capacity by 2030.