Johannesburg-based Vantage Capital has raised $215 million (R2.2 billion) from South African pension funds for a mezzanine debt fund focused on clean energy projects that have been tendered for the South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPP). The fund has already identified seven solar and wind projects worth roughly $203 million (R2.1 billion) that it will finance.
Vantage Capital currently manages two mezzanine debt funds with total commitments of approximately $279 million (R2.85 billion). The new GreenX Fund will bring funds under management at Vantage to more than $489 million (R5 billion.)
South Africa plans to add 17,800 megawatts of new capacity from clean energy sources by 2030, according to the government’s Integrated Resource Plan.
“In 2012, renewable energy accounted for less than 1 percent of South Africa’s energy mix; Frost & Sullivan forecasts this will grow to 12 percent in 2020. Renewable projects are typically 70 to 80 percent debt funded, so the renewable sector represents a massive opportunity for an alternative debt-oriented investor like Vantage” says Luc Albinski, managing partner of Vantage Capital, in a release.