Ortus secures €97m green loan for solar

Ortus Power has secured a €97 million green loan in Italy, and the structure tells you almost as much as the headline. Part of the money refinances 23 megawatts of solar plants already producing electricity, and part funds 78 megawatts of projects that are ready to build. (born2invest.com) That mix matters because banks usually like to lend against cash flow they can already see. An operating solar plant is closer to an apartment building with tenants already paying rent than a vacant lot with plans pinned to a wall. (lma.eu.com) A non-recourse loan makes that distinction even sharper. In project finance, lenders are repaid mainly from the project’s own revenues and security package, not from a broad claim on the sponsor’s entire balance sheet. (requadro.com) Green loans have their own rulebook as well. The Loan Market Association says the core test is that proceeds must be used for green projects, with clear selection criteria, management of proceeds, and reporting. (lma.eu.com) Ortus Power Resources Italy sits inside a bigger buildout story. The company says it is an independent power producer focused on solar, wind, and storage, and in September 2024 it announced up to €100 million of holdco financing tied to a 740 megawatt Italian solar portfolio. (ortusitaly.com 1) (ortusitaly.com 2) This new financing is more specific than that earlier portfolio-level funding. The €97 million package is tied to a defined pool of operating photovoltaic plants and a separate batch of ready-to-build assets, which is exactly the kind of ring-fenced structure credit committees can model line by line. (born2invest.com) (requadro.com) The Italian policy backdrop helps explain why those projects look financeable now. Italy’s Gestore dei Servizi Energetici, the state-owned energy services manager, has long run renewable support schemes, and the older FER 1 decree created incentive mechanisms for renewable electricity plants including solar. (gse.it) The operating 23 megawatts in the Ortus package are described as mostly having won incentives under FER 1. That means much of the refinanced portfolio already sits inside a revenue framework lenders know how to underwrite. (requadro.com) The 78 megawatts on the construction side are linked to Italy’s newer Transitional FER X regime. That decree, published in early 2025, opened support for new solar and other renewable projects and is designed around competitive access to long-term support. (ashurst.com) (wfw.com) In plain terms, Ortus is pairing yesterday’s revenues with tomorrow’s build. The existing plants provide operating history, while the ready-to-build projects come with a clearer route to construction and contracted-style support than a raw early-stage pipeline would. (born2invest.com) (requadro.com) That is why this deal stands out in a tougher lending market. Higher rates and tighter credit conditions tend to punish speculative development first, so sponsors that can bundle operating assets with shovel-ready projects often get a better hearing from banks than developers pitching distant capacity targets. (eba.europa.eu) (lsta.org) The lenders on this transaction were BPER Corporate & Investment Banking and Mediocredito Centrale, according to deal reports, and the financing was structured on a holdco basis through OPR Sun 0. That detail matters because holdco debt can aggregate multiple assets under one financing umbrella while still keeping the package tied to a defined portfolio. (bebeez.it) (born2invest.com) Seen from a distance, this is not just a solar expansion story. It is a financing template: refinance the plants that already work, use that stability to help fund the plants that can start soon, and fit both inside Italy’s incentive system while lenders still want visible cash flow more than ambition. (born2invest.com) (gse.it)