Facility with innovative structure, first of its kind, to fund expansion of
- Crescent Capital’s Renewable Energy Portfolio
- Expands QInvest’s investment and track record in Turkey
QInvest, Qatar's leading investment group and one of the world’s most prominent Islamic financial institutions, has provided a 5 year US$ 30 million murabaha mezzanine finance facility for Crescent Capital to fund its acquisition of a 100% stake in Akocak HPP, an operational 81 MW hydro-electric power plant in Turkey.
QInvest has structured and invested in this transaction, which is the first of its kind, alongside Garanti Bank, Turkey’s leading energy and infrastructure financier and the sole senior lender for the dual-tranche funding package of US$ 100 million. The agreement was formalised at a signing ceremony which was attended by Aygen Yayikoglu, Founder and Managing Partner of Crescent Capital, and Can Güçlü, Managing Director in the Investment Banking Division of QInvest.
The investment was made through Crescent’s Clean Energy Transition Fund (CETF), the first energy-focused private equity fund in Turkey, backed by leading international financial institutions. Akocak is CETF’s eighth investment to date, and is a “run-of-river” hydroelectricity power plant located in the province of Trabzon, Eastern Black Sea Region and has been acquired from a large Turkish energy holding company.
Aygen Yayikoglu, Founder and Managing Partner of Crescent Capital, said:
“"We are thankful to QInvest for their support on this transaction based on their specialist experience in murabaha financing, prominent position in the GCC, and understanding of the Turkish market. Based on the success of this transaction, we look forward to deepening our cooperation in the future".”
“We continue to play a pioneering role in our market as the only PE firm fully focused on energy and infrastructure. Given the substantial pipeline of opportunities, we are in the process of mobilizing additional capital and build a large portfolio of clean energy assets, which are increasingly becoming attractive to long-term investors seeking stable cash flows.” Yayikoglu added
Can Güçlü, Managing Director, from QInvest said:
“We have been analyzing at the Turkish Energy sector for some time now as we felt that it has great opportunities to offer. We are extremely proud to be part of such a landmark transaction. QInvest’s facility allowed the transaction to conclude by supporting Crescent capital with mezzanine financing. Our structured finance team worked hard to devise a structure that met the needs of Crescent Capital to acquire this asset in a sharia’a compliant way. We have shown that we have the experience to arrange competitive and sophisticated sharia’a compliant financing solutions for our client’s globally across a range of sectors.”
“We are delighted to sign this agreement with Crescent Capital, and look forward to supporting them in the financing of this important project with a view to developing a long term partnership.” Güçlü concluded.
Qatar's QInvest has previously completed a number of successful Islamic financing transactions in Turkey. The bank lately announced another year of robust growth recording its highest revenue since inception culminating an increase in both revenues and net profit of 32% and 76% respectively.