In its first investment into Indian clean energy, Bank of America (BofA) has extended a $50-million (Rs. 356.5 crore) revolving credit facility to Hyderabad-based Fourth Partner Energy, a distributed solar solutions provider. This line of credit is BofA’s first locally denominated loan for commercial solar financing in India. Fourth Partner Energy will deploy these funds to further grow its operational solar portfolio by close to 150 MW over the next 18 months.
Fourth Partner recently announced a $70-million investment from The Rise Fund, a global impact investment fund managed by TPG Growth. Till date, Fourth Partner Energy has executed distributed solar projects with a cumulative capacity of 200 MW across 23 states in India for over 150 corporate and government clients. The credit facility will help the company explore new corporate partnerships and take on additional projects as well.
“The access to capital from Bank of America is important to strengthen and expand our businesses at efficient costs, and this relationship with Bank of America can also open the door to long-term capital solutions for the sector. The skill, experience and resources of a global institution like Bank of America will be vital to expanding the sector,” Vivek Subramanian, co-founder, Fourth Partner Energy, said, adding that India has achieved under 15% of its rooftop solar target of 40 GW by 2022 and there is a dire need to accelerate capacity installation.”
Fourth Partner Energy’s current portfolio includes projects across a range of commercial and industrial clients such as Coca-Cola, Hindustan Unilever, Schneider and Walmart. The company plans to add 220-250 MW of capacity to its operational portfolio this year, and is actively pursuing the Open Access Group Captive model. The firm has commenced international operations in Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar.
In 2018, TPG Capital, through its impact investment arm The Rise Fund, invested into Fourth Partner Energy, and since then TRF has worked closely with the company to help create new pathways to expansion. This transaction is an example of the unique benefits that scaled capital and global partners can bring to impact-driven growth businesses around the world.
This transaction expands BoA’s environmental business initiative, which deploys capital to low-carbon, sustainable business activities. Since 2007, Bank of America has directed more than $145 billion to these efforts through lending, investing, capital raising and developing financial solutions for clients around the world.
