Canadian Solar Secures EUR 50 Million from Santander to Support Growth in Project Development in EMEA

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Jun 24, 2021, 07:00 ET

GUELPH, Ontario, June 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Canadian Solar Inc. (the "Company", or "Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ) announced today that it has secured a €50 million bilateral corporate facility with Banco Santander, S.A. ("Santander"). The facility will support growth at Canadian Solar's Global Energy business as it executes and expands on its project development pipeline in the Europe, Middle East and Africa, or EMEA region, and further diversifies the Company's sources of financing.

This is the second facility between Canadian Solar's European subsidiary and Santander over the past year which demonstrates Santander's trust on the Company's regional strategy and ability to execute on its business plan. It also demonstrates Canadian Solar's strong bankability in the global solar market, built on its 20-year track record of strong product performance and experience in solar project development.

The new facility is composed of a term loan and a revolving credit facility of equal amounts. This structure provides Canadian Solar a highly flexible financial instrument to execute growth plans as well as manage short term cash needs at favorable terms.

"The EMEA region is going through a significant acceleration in deployment of solar PV and it is one of the key pillars of growth of our Global Energy business. We will continue to execute on our project development business, while expanding our presence in areas such as operations and maintenance, asset management, battery storage and energy trading. Partnering with Santander, we will to continue our efforts in building a sustainable business model and contributing to the global response to climate change," said Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar.

He added, "We are well positioned to expand our role as a full global solar operator, adding and capturing value throughout the full project lifecycle. We hope to expand our partnership with Santander as we further strengthen our leadership position in the global renewable energy market, contributing to advance the Paris Agreement goals for a drastic reduction of carbon emissions by 2030."

As of the first quarter of 2021, Canadian Solar has a total global solar PV project pipeline of 21 GWp, of which nearly 4 GWp is in EMEA, specifically in Italy, Spain, the U.K., France, Poland, Netherlands, Israel and South Africa. The Company has offices fully dedicated to project development in Madrid, Milan, London and Warsaw. The Company is also strategically positioning itself as one of the main energy storage players in the world, with a global pipeline of nearly 17 GWh, of which more that 1 GWh of storage projects are in EMEA.

About Canadian Solar Inc.

Canadian Solar was founded in 2001 in Canada and is one of the world's largest solar technology and renewable energy companies. It is a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules, provider of solar energy and battery storage solutions, and developer of utility-scale solar power and battery storage projects with a geographically diversified pipeline in various stages of development. Over the past 20 years, Canadian Solar has successfully delivered over 55 GW of premium-quality, solar photovoltaic modules to customers in over 150 countries. Likewise, since entering the solar project development business in 2010, Canadian Solar has developed, built and connected over 5.7 GWp in over 20 countries across the world. Currently, the Company has around 500 MWp of projects in operation, nearly 6 GWp of projects under construction or in backlog (late-stage), and an additional 15 GWp of projects in pipeline (mid- to early- stage). Additionally, Canadian Solar has 1.2 GWh of battery storage projects under construction, and nearly 16 GWh of battery storage projects in backlog or pipeline. Canadian Solar is one of the most bankable companies in the solar and renewable energy industry, having been publicly listed on the NASDAQ since 2006. For additional information about the Company, follow Canadian Solar on LinkedIn or visit www.canadiansolar.com.

About Banco Santander

Banco Santander (SAN SM, STD US, BNC LN) is a leading retail and commercial bank, founded in 1857 and headquartered in Spain. It has a meaningful presence in 10 core markets in the Europe, North America and South America regions, and is one of the largest banks in the world by market capitalization. Its purpose is to help people and businesses prosper in a simple, personal and fair way. Santander is building a more responsible bank and has made a number of commitments to support this objective, including raising over €120 billion in green financing between 2019 and 2025, as well as financially empowering more than 10 million people over the same period. At the end of the first quarter of 2021, Banco Santander had €1.1 trillion in total funds, 149 million customers, of which 23.4 million are loyal and 44.2 million are digital, 10,800 branches and 190,000 employees.

Safe Harbor/Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release, including but not limited to the use of proceeds, 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; volatility, uncertainty, delays and disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic; 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, China and Brazil; 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; delays in the process of qualifying to list the CSI Solar subsidiary in the PRC; 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 19, 2021. 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.