RMB has played a pivotal role in two 140MW renewable wind energy projects that have reached financial close.  Umsinde Emoyeni Wind Farm (“Umsinde”) and Khangela Emoyeni wind farm (“Khangela”) will supply renewable energy to the South African operations of Sibanye-Stillwater (“Sibanye”) and Richards Bay Minerals (“RBM”) respectively, by wheeling over the Eskom Grid under two separate 20-year power purchase agreements (PPAs). The two projects, which are located on the border between the Northern Cape Province and the Western Cape Province near Murraysburg, South Africa, unlock additional renewable energy generation capacity in the region through an expansion of the Gamma Main Transmission Substation (Gamma MTS), which will include the procurement and installation of a 500MVA transformer.

RMB acted as sole Initial Mandated Lead Arranger, Underwriter and Bookrunner (IMLAUB) for project sponsors African Clean Energy Developments (ACED), Energy Infrastructure Management Services (EIMS Africa), Infrastructural, Developmental, Environmental Assets Managed Fund (IDEAS Fund) and Reatile Renewables (Reatile). In addition to its role as sole IMLAUB, RMB fulfilled the role of hedge provider, account bank, and facility agent, syndicating a portion of the senior term loan facility to financial institutions Momentum Metropolitan Life (MML), Old Mutual Alternative Investments (OMAI) and Stanlib. 

Complexity is inherent in IPP deals, as finance, construction, operation and PPAs all need to be aligned. Adding to the complexity of this transaction, the two projects are co-located, and as a result there is shared grid infrastructure that must be built for both projects to connect to the Eskom grid. These interdependencies required that the projects reach financial close simultaneously, under tight timeframes.  “The strength of the relationship with Sponsors and our collective market-leading experience in private power saw us manage this complexity and deliver structuring that provided competitive tariffs for the Buyers as well as attractive risk-adjusted returns for the Sponsors,” says David Jones at RMB. 

ACED general manager James Cumming says: “We are immensely proud to have achieved financial close and construction commencement on another set of private renewables projects for some of South Africa’s key mining houses, both valued partners to ACED, EIMS Africa and the consortium. Not only will this provide Rio’s Richards Bay Minerals and Sibanye-Stillwater with clean energy for their operations, but also create jobs and development funding streams to support and grow local communities to the projects, as well as alleviate SA’s power crisis. We want to thank everyone involved – these projects take armies and lots of hard work to bring them to life!”

These projects represent the culmination of nearly 3 years of partnership between RMB and the Sponsors, and during which time 470MW of renewable energy generation capacity has been brought to financial close, across 7 projects and 4 private offtakers. “We are thrilled to deliver on another major milestone for the Sponsors, in what has been a highly impactful period of pioneering the private power space.  In doing so we have also enabled our corporate clients Sibanye and RBM take significant steps towards their decarbonisation and energy saving goals,” concludes Mogola Segooa at RMB.