SSE's SSEN Transmission secures £1bn green loan

(Sharecast News) - Electricity infrastructure firm SSE said on Friday that its majority owned subsidiary SSEN Transmission has inked a £1bn bank facility backed by an £800m financial guarantee from the UK Government's National Wealth Fund. SSE, which owns 75% of SSEN Transmission, said the 12-year bank facility would support four major grid upgrade projects under way in the north of Scotland and has been syndicated to a group of SSEN's relationship banks, led by Bank of America, and including BBVA, HSBC, JP Morgan, Lloyds, MUFG, NatWest and Santander.

The FTSE 100-listed firm stated the financing was ringfenced as a "Green Loan" to support four SSEN Transmission projects which will upgrade grid capacity, improve local resilience and connect power from places of generation to areas of demand throughout the GB grid.

SSE said the projects in question were SSEN's Skye Reinforcement, Argyll and Kintyre 275kV Strategy, as well as the Orkney Connection and the jointly developed Eastern Green Link 2.

Chief financial officer Barry O'Regan said: "This new bank facility supported by the National Wealth Fund financial guarantee provides an excellent source of funding diversification, and with a three-year availability window helping to manage liquidity for SSEN Transmission.

"It demonstrates the importance of grid upgrades both in achieving the country's clean power and energy security goals, and in unlocking economic growth throughout the nations and regions of Britain."





Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com