By: AGBI

Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power has signed agreements valued at $10 billion to develop renewable energy and storage projects across multiple regions, including the GCC, China, Central Asia and Africa.

The deals were signed this week at the ninth edition of the Future Investment Initiative summit in Riyadh. 

Acwa Power, in partnership with Water and Electricity Holding Company, a wholly owned company of Public Investment Fund and Saudi Aramco, signed financing agreements worth $6 billion. 

The projects are being developed under Saudi Arabia’s national renewable energy programme.

The Saudi-listed company also agreed a $100 million green equity financing deal for the Kungrad 123 wind and battery energy storage project in Uzbekistan.

The sharia-compliant financing was secured from Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. 

It also raised financing for the $1.8 billion Samarkand solar and battery energy storage project in Uzbekistan from a consortium of lenders, including Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Islamic Development Bank and private financial institutions. 

In Africa, the company signed agreements with the International Finance Corporation. The first, valued at up to $1 billion, will provide project and corporate financing, as well as capacity-building and advisory support for Acwa Power’s growing portfolio across Africa.

The second pact will explore establishing an equity investment platform to channel private capital into late-stage and small-scale renewable energy independent power producers and seawater desalination projects, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Acwa Power also signed a cooperation agreement with the Opec Fund for International Development to expand its financing and equity investment in Africa and other priority markets.

The fund said it is likely to extend project financing and equity bridge loans, and to make equity investments worth $450 million its initial target.  

PIF owns 44 percent of Acwa Power. The stock closed almost 0.5 percent higher at SAR241.70 on Thursday. It is down 40 percent in the year to date.