Thu, Apr 23, 2020 page12

• Bank SinoPac leads NT$3.2bn loan to build solar power

  • By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporter
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  Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) and four other banks are providing Taya Group (大亞集團) with a NT$3.2 billion (US$106.31 million) syndicated loan to install 76 megawatts of ground-mounted solar power in Tainan, Bank SinoPac said yesterday.

  Bank SinoPac is serving as the lead bank, with KGI Bank (凱基銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), Chang Hwa Bank (彰化銀行) and International Bills Finance Corp (國際票券) also contributing to the loan, it said.

  The banks did not disclose interest rates for the loan nor how it would be split among the five lenders, saying only that the syndicated loan was 153 percent oversubscribed.

  

  Bank SinoPac president Eric Chuang, left, and Taya Group chairman Ryan Shen pose for a photograph following a syndicated loan signing ceremony in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times

  Interest rates for syndicated loans are usually lower than those for regular corporate lending, one bank manager said.

  “We have been focusing on offering green loans since 2012, as it helps the nation acquire more clean energy,” Bank SinoPac president Eric Chuang (莊銘福) told a news conference in Taipei.

  The loan marked its latest funding for solar power projects after it last year arranged NT$2 billion in syndicated loans for Formosa Solar Renewable Power Co Ltd (寶島陽光), NT$4 billion for Kingstone Energy Technology Co (國軒科技) and NT$6 billion for Chailease Finance Co Ltd (中租迪和), Chuang said.

  The lender has made loans to more than 4,000 solar power farms with total installed capacity of 1 gigawatt as of the end of last month, he said, adding that the amount of outstanding loans totaled NT$27.4 billion.

  Taya Electric Wire and Cable Co (大亞電線電纜 ) is to build a photovoltaic power station on a 70m2 plot in Tainan’s Xuejia District (學甲), chairman Ryan Shen (沈尚弘) said.

  It is the nation’s first solar power project built on an integrated plot of private land that had different owners, Shen said, adding that the firm spent two-and-a-half years persuading the owners, who had used the land for raising fish, to rent it for solar power.

  “Thankfully, there were only a few owners, so it was not too complicated. They agreed, as selling solar power would make more money than selling fish,” Shen said, adding that the company also had to apply to change the land’s zoning.

  Taya is to finish the solar farm by the end of this year, which is expected to generate 1.8 billion units of electricity in the next 20 years, he said.

  The company would sell the electricity to Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) under the state-owned company’s feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme, with total profit forecast to be at least NT$2.4 billion, Shen said.

  “We did consider selling the power to private companies that need green energy, such as Apple Inc’s suppliers,” Shen said.

  “However, as the FIT scheme promises a fixed price over the next 20 years, it can help us earn revenue without any price fluctuations, so we prefer selling to Taipower,” Shen said.

  Private technology companies prefer onshore wind power, as the energy is much cheaper than ground-mounted solar power, with the prices for the two types at about NT$2 per unit and NT$4 per unit respectively, he said.
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