CANADIAN SOLAR WINS SECOND AWARD FOR DUAL-TENOR GREEN PROJECT BOND IN JAPAN
GUELPH, Ontario: Canadian Solar Inc., (the “Company”, or “Canadian Solar”) (NASDAQ:CSIQ), one of the world’s largest solar power companies, today announced that it won J-Money’s Best Structured Product Award during its Japan Deals of the Year 2017 awards program. Canadian Solar is celebrating its second award win for its innovative dual-tenor green project bond, adding the accolade to the prior Project Bond of the Year Award by Environmental Finance and third financing award to date worldwide for 2017.
Originally established by international financial publisher Euromoney PLC, J-Money magazine has covered the Japanese and international capital markets for over 30 years. The awards recognize best financial practices in Japan, and are based on industry peer assessments from the financial industry. Other notable winners for the J-Money Japan Deal Awards of the Year 2017 include KKR, DBJ, and Credit Agricole, among others. This second award affirms that the world’s first dual-tenor green project bond, raising JPY5.4 billion (US$49 million) offered by Canadian Solar for its 19 MWp Gunma Aramaki solar power project, is a groundbreaking structure for international structured finance.
“We are honored once more with this second award. The international recognition encourages us to commit to further innovation in the Japan market. We garnered immense support from our business partners, investors, and financiers to shape an innovative financing structure,” commented Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, “This success gives us the confidence to execute future financing of solar with the same dynamic approach.”
The Gunma Aramaki project bond received an investment grade rating of “A”, the highest rating in Japan PV sector, by the Japan Credit Rating Agency, Ltd. (“JCR”) and has been independently certified as a green bond in accordance with the Green Bond Principles 2016 published by the International Capital Market Association (“ICMA”) by the Japan Research Institution, Limited (“JRI”). Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd. acted as the structuring advisor and sole bond arranger.
About Canadian Solar Inc.
Founded in 2001 in Canada, Canadian Solar is one of the world’s largest and foremost solar power companies. As a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules and provider of solar energy solutions, Canadian Solar also has a geographically diversified pipeline of utility-scale power projects in various stages of development. In the past 17 years, Canadian Solar has successfully delivered over 26 GW of premium quality modules to over 100 countries around the world. Furthermore, Canadian Solar is one of the most bankable companies in the solar industry, having been publicly listed on NASDAQ since 2006. For additional information about the company, follow Canadian Solar on LinkedIn or visit www.canadiansolar.com.
Safe Harbor/Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These statements are made under the “Safe Harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by such terms as “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “estimates,” the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include general business and economic conditions and the state of the solar industry; governmental support for the deployment of solar power; future available supplies of high-purity silicon; demand for end-use products by consumers and inventory levels of such products in the supply chain; changes in demand from significant customers; changes in demand from major markets such as Japan, the U.S., India and China; changes in customer order patterns; changes in product mix; capacity utilization; level of competition; pricing pressure and declines in average selling prices; delays in new product introduction; delays in utility-scale project approval process; delays in utility-scale project construction; delays in the completion of project sales; continued success in technological innovations and delivery of products with the features customers demand; shortage in supply of materials or capacity requirements; availability of financing; exchange rate fluctuations; litigation and other risks as described in the Company’s SEC filings, including its annual report on Form 20-F filed on April 26, 2018. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance, or achievements. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All information provided in this press release is as of today’s date, unless otherwise stated, and Canadian Solar undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.
Source: Canadian Solar Inc.
