Independent UK law firm Burges Salmon has acted as lead international counsel to the Facility for Energy Inclusion (“FEI”) on a USD 7.5 million facility to Odyssey Energy Solutions (“Odyssey”), supporting the expansion of its equipment credit platform for mini-grids and commercial and industrial (“C&I”) projects across Africa. Odyssey’s equipment credit solution enables distributed renewable energy (“DRE”) companies to access high-quality equipment on credit, helping close the working-capital gap that often delays project rollouts.
This financing will directly support the rollout of mini-grids and C&I solutions across Africa, providing equipment credit to small and mid-sized developers, and engineering, procurement and construction firms throughout the region. The financing will support Odyssey’s platform clients, including mini-grid developers participating in Nigeria’s USD 750m Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (“DARES”) programme. Odyssey Procurement is the newest component of Odyssey’s end-to-end platform, designed to rapidly advance the clean energy transition in emerging markets. Over the next four years, Odyssey expects to facilitate more than USD 800 million of solar equipment procurement across sub-Saharan Africa.
FEI (managed by Cygnum Capital, one of the largest asset managers on the African continent with over USD 1.3 billion in assets under management with investments in 32 African countries) supports small-scale independent power producers delivering power to the grid, mini-grids, commercial and industrial and captive power projects. This latest financing to Odyssey highlights FEI’s position as a market leader in the financing of commercial and industrial solar projects and a key lender for mini-grid projects of scale across the continent.
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The Burges Salmon team advising FEI was led by Stuart McMillan, Luke Addison and Alice Burns. The team has extensive experience advising on the project financing of DRE technologies, having advised on several of the largest C&I portfolios in Africa, as well as some of the biggest project financed solar mini-grid portfolios to reach financial close on the continent.This transaction reinforces Burges Salmon’s expertise in African energy financing, and the firm’s commitment to advancing sustainable infrastructure globally.
Carmen de Castro, Managing Director at Cygnum Capital, comments: “Distributed energy solutions play a critical role in expanding reliable and affordable power across Africa, particularly for underserved communities and productive use applications. This transaction with Odyssey Energy Solutions reflects FEI’s focus on supporting scalable platforms that strengthen last-mile energy access while applying a commercial investment approach. We were pleased to work with the Burges Salmon team, whose experience in energy and infrastructure financings, combined with their pragmatic and responsive approach, was instrumental in navigating the complexities of this transaction and bringing it to a successful close.”
Edinburgh-based Stuart McMillan adds: “We are committed to supporting sustainable infrastructure projects across the globe, are proud to support clients in enabling the provision of sustainable and affordable power across the continent of Africa. As such, we are delighted to have supported FEI on this important transaction, which will help accelerate access to clean energy solutions across Africa.”
