Sunly, a renewable energy producer, raises €300 million

Ellex team advised Rivage Investment, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and Norway’s Kommunal Landspensjonskasse on a EUR 300 million IPP financing for the construction of 1.3-gigawatt of solar PV, wind, storage, and hybrid parks in the Baltics and Poland, provided to renewable energy producer Sunly.

The amount raised reflects strong market confidence in Sunly’s capacity to spearhead regional energy transformation.

Priit Lepasepp, co-founder and CEO of Sunly, said: “This investment enables us to improve our infrastructure with new grid connections and solar parks in the Baltics, which will support our onshore wind and storage pipeline expansion. To help reduce energy costs, our focus will be on two key areas: building a hybrid pipeline with storage capabilities and advancing the electrification of heating and mobility systems, thereby diminishing our reliance on imported fossil fuels and optimizing the use of local renewable resources”.

Gaétane Tracz, Partner and Head of the Infrastructure Debt team at Rivage, said: “We are delighted to support Sunly’s strong leadership team through their ambitious growth trajectory and to help accelerate the construction of hybrid renewable energy parks across the Baltics and Poland. We share Sunly’s mission of contributing to produce power with purpose, to contribute to European Union energy security and to deliver investments with both attractive performance and ESG impact.”

Jakob Groot, Partner at CIP and Co-Head of the CI Green Credit Fund I, said: “We are very excited to start our partnership with Sunly, and their highly experienced management team. This financing package will contribute significantly to the development and construction of renewable energy projects, supporting the decarbonization ambitions across the Baltics and Poland, and represents an attractive investment for our Green Credit Fund I”.

Oliver Siem, Director, Investments and Operations at Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP), said: “We are yet again pleased to be invited as a co-investor in a renewable energy project in Poland and the Baltics through our longstanding relationship with CIP. This is one of many steps in reaching our goal of being Paris aligned by 2050.”

With this investment Sunly’s expansion has been backed by a total of €765 million debt and equity capital from investors, including French fund Mirova, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and various banks. In 2023, Sunly successfully raised approximately €200 million from its existing investors Mirova and EBRD to further develop and construct solar and wind parks across Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

Ellex Estonia team included Partner Ermo Kosk, Counsel Toomas Kasesalu, Partner Liis Könn, and Tax Counsel Dmitri Rozenblat, Ellex Latvia team included: Associate Partner, Co-Head of Banking & Finance practice Marta Cera, Senior Associate Niklāvs Zieds and Ellex Lithuania team included Partner Giedrius Stasevičius and Senior Associate Eglė Radvilaitė.