Canadian Solar Inc., (the “Company”, or “Canadian Solar”)\u00a0(NASDAQ:CSIQ), one of the world’s largest solar power companies, today announced that it won J-Money’s Best Structured Product Award during its Japan Deals of the Year 2017 awards program.\u00a0Canadian Solar\u00a0is celebrating its second award win for its innovative dual-tenor green project bond, adding the accolade to the prior Project Bond of the Year Award by Environmental Finance and third financing award to date worldwide for 2017.<\/p>\n
Originally established by international financial publisher Euromoney PLC,\u00a0J-Money magazine\u00a0has covered the Japanese and international capital markets for over 30 years. The awards recognize best financial practices in\u00a0Japan, and are based on industry peer assessments from the financial industry. Other notable winners for the J-Money Japan Deal Awards of the Year 2017 include KKR, DBJ, and\u00a0Credit Agricole, among others.\u00a0 This second award affirms that the world’s first dual-tenor green project bond, raising\u00a0JPY5.4 billion\u00a0(US$49 million) offered by\u00a0Canadian Solar\u00a0for its 19 MWp Gunma Aramaki solar power project, is a groundbreaking structure for international structured finance.<\/p>\n
“We are honored once more with this second award. The international recognition encourages us to commit to further innovation in the\u00a0Japan\u00a0market. We garnered immense support from our business partners, investors, and financiers to shape an innovative financing structure,” commented Dr.\u00a0Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, “This success gives us the confidence to execute future financing of solar with the same dynamic approach.”<\/p>\n
The Gunma Aramaki project bond received an investment grade rating of “A”, the highest rating in\u00a0Japan\u00a0PV sector, by the\u00a0Japan Credit Rating Agency, Ltd.\u00a0(“JCR”) and has been independently certified as a green bond in accordance with the Green Bond Principles 2016 published by the\u00a0International Capital Market Association\u00a0(“ICMA”) by the\u00a0Japan Research Institution, Limited\u00a0(“JRI”).\u00a0Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd.\u00a0acted as the structuring advisor and sole bond arranger.<\/p>\n