Sindicatum Renewable Energy, a Singapore-headquartered renewable energy company, has raised ₹2.5 billion (~$39.3 million) through the sale of rupee-denominated international green bonds.

The bonds were issued in two tranches and have a maturity period of five and seven years, respectively. The guarantor of the issuance is GuarantCo, an international development finance institution headquartered in London.

With the closing of the bond, Sindicatum Renewables became the first Singaporean company to issue international green bonds in Indian rupees. The company intends to use the raised funds to finance renewable energy projects in India and refinance its existing debts.

The bond also marks a number of other firsts. It is also the first international green bond issued by a Singapore-based renewable energy company with a maturity period of seven years, and the first international green bond issued in accordance with both the International Capital Market Association (ICMA)’s Green Bond Principles 2017 (GBP) and the ASEAN Green Bond Standards.

Sindicatum develops, owns, and operates renewable energy generation facilities in southern and southeastern Asia. Incorporated in 2013, the company’s portfolio as of November 2017 amounted to 307 MW.

“With a seven-year maturity, this bond will allow us to accelerate the pace of our investments in India’s clean energy infrastructure while protecting us from foreign exchange risk,” Assaad W. Razzouk, the chief executive officer of Sindicatum Renewables, said in a media statement.

“We hope that our innovative green bond will open the market for renewable companies to tap into investors’ demand for sustainable energy assets. This will accelerate the mobilization of sustainable finance for South and South-East Asia, a region at the front lines of suffering from climate change,” Assaad added.

Lasitha Perera, the CEO of GuarantCo said, “GuarantCo is committed to mobilizing capital markets to support the growth of infrastructure developers that operate in lower income countries. In line with this mission, it is our hope that the innovative synthetic local currency bond structure, developed for Sindicatum Renewables, will be replicated by other developers of critical infrastructure in lower income countries to access the international capital markets whilst mitigating currency risk.”

The Sindicatum offering comes eight months after the Asian Development Bank (ADB) issued its own rupee-denominated bonds in an effort to help finance climate change mitigation and adaptation projects in India. Mercom reported in May that ADB’s offshore bond offering raised ₹3 billion (~$47 million).

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