EDF Renewables and Canadian Solar Secure 1.39 Billion Brazilian Reais (US$373million) Financing on Pirapora Solar Complex

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Nov 26, 2018, 07:00 ET

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- EDF Renewables, a global market leader in renewable energy, and Canadian Solar Inc. (the "Company", or "Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ), one of the world's largest solar power companies, today announced their jointly-owned 399 MWp Pirapora solar complex in Brazil has successfully raised a total of 1.39 billion Brazilian reais (US$373 million) via multiple project finance sources. EDF Renewables owns 80% of the complex while Canadian Solar owns the remaining 20% stake.

The 191.5 MWp Pirapora I solar power project raised 220 million Brazilian reais (US$59 million) of infrastructure debentures through private placement to accredited institutional investors. The debentures have a tenor of 16 years and are guaranteed by the Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB") and IDB Invest, the private sector arm of the IDB Group. Fitch Ratings assigned the debentures ratings of A+ (Global) and AAA (Brazil), with stable outlook. This innovative issuance marks the first debenture of a solar project in Brazil to be assigned a global investment grade rating. This also marks IDB group's first structured credit guarantee product for solar in Brazil. BTG Pactual acted as a financial advisor to the sponsors for this transaction. Proceeds of this issuance will be used to repay a construction bridge loan provided by IDB. As previously announced on August 7, 2017, the project also received an 18-year financing from the Brazilian Development Bank ("BNDES") in the amount of 529 million Brazilian reais (US$142 million). This structure is the result of an innovative partnership between BNDES and IDB, which could stimulate the financing of other renewable energy projects in the country.

In addition, the 115 MWp Pirapora II solar power project closed long-term project financing of 366 million Brazilian reais (US$99 million) from Banco do Nordeste and the Northeast Constitutional Fund.

Adjacent 92.5 MWp Pirapora III solar power project has secured long-term project financing of 271 million Brazilian reais (US$73 million) from BNDES and the Brazilian National Climate Fund.

"These financings demonstrate the huge interest of leading financial institutions in the development of large scale solar energy infrastructure in Brazil," commented Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar. "The high quality of the projects and the solidity of the sponsors were determinant to structure this important funding" – said Paulo Abranches, Chief Executive Officer of EDF Renewables in Brazil.

The Pirapora projects, operational since mid-2018, are among the largest solar complexes in the Latin America region. The three plants are powered by approximately 1,235,000 high-efficiency CS6U-P modules manufactured by Canadian Solar in Sao Paulo State, Brazil. Solar energy generated from these projects are fully contracted with 20-year inflation-linked power purchase agreements.

About EDF Renewables (previously EDF Energies Nouvelles)

EDF Renewables is a leading international player in renewable energies, with gross installed capacity of 14.2 GW worldwide. Its development is mainly focused on wind and solar photovoltaic power. EDF Renewables operates mostly in Europe and North America but is continuing to grow by moving into promising emerging regions such as Brazil, China, India, South Africa and the Middle East. The company has strong positions in offshore wind power, but also in other areas of the renewable energies industry such distributed energy and energy storage. EDF Renewables develops, builds, operates and maintains renewable energies projects, both for itself and for third parties. Most of its international subsidiaries bear the EDF Renewables brand. EDF Renewables is the EDF Group subsidiary specialising in developing solar and wind power.

For more information, visit: www.edf-renouvelables.com

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/edf-renouvelables and on Twitter (@EDF_RE in French and @EDF_Renewables in English).

About Canadian Solar Inc.

Founded in 2001 in Canada, Canadian Solar is one of the world's largest and foremost solar power companies. As a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules and provider of solar energy solutions, Canadian Solar also has a geographically diversified pipeline of utility-scale power projects in various stages of development. In the past 17 years, Canadian Solar has successfully delivered over 30 GW of premium quality modules to over 150 countries around the world. Furthermore, Canadian Solar is one of the most bankable companies in the solar industry, having been publicly listed on NASDAQ since 2006. For additional information about the Company, follow Canadian Solar on LinkedIn or visit www.canadiansolar.com.

Safe Harbor/Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These statements are made under the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by such terms as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "estimates," the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include general business and economic conditions and the state of the solar industry; governmental support for the deployment of solar power; future available supplies of high-purity silicon; demand for end-use products by consumers and inventory levels of such products in the supply chain; changes in demand from significant customers; changes in demand from major markets such as Japan, the U.S., India and China; changes in customer order patterns; changes in product mix; capacity utilization; level of competition; pricing pressure and declines in average selling prices; delays in new product introduction; delays in utility-scale project approval process; delays in utility-scale project construction; delays in the completion of project sales; continued success in technological innovations and delivery of products with the features customers demand; shortage in supply of materials or capacity requirements; availability of financing; exchange rate fluctuations; litigation and other risks as described in the Company's SEC filings, including its annual report on Form 20-F filed on April 26, 2018. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance, or achievements. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All information provided in this press release is as of today's date, unless otherwise stated, and Canadian Solar undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

SOURCE Canadian Solar Inc.