INVESTMENT PRODUCTS
The fund provides repayable construction finance, predominantly in the form of senior loans, but also with the potential for mezzanine and equity.
ELIGIBLE BORROWERS AND PROJECTS
The fund can lend to public sector, private sector or joint venture entities, including Energy Service Companies (ESCOs).
ELIGIBLE TECHNOLOGIES
MEEF will finance a broad range of Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) to provide energy or carbon saving benefits. This includes, for example, boiler replacement, Combined Heat and Power (CHP), insulation and ground source heat pumps.
The below is a list of ECMs but please contact the team if your ECM saves energy but is not listed.
Download the MEEF ECM Technology List
INVESTMENT SIZE
The fund targets investments of between £3m-£20m but can consider larger or small investments. Smaller projects will be considered on a case-by-case basis, but it may be appropriate to group buildings or parts of a project together for financing. Draw-down of funds can be upfront or on a phased basis during construction
PERFORMANCE TARGETS
MEEF is a sustainable investor, targeting socio-economic and financial returns on investment. Projects supported by MEEF should aim to deliver Energy Savings (kWh) from the Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) of at least 20% and/or CO2 reduction of £7,000 of investment per tonne of CO2 saved.
COMPARABLE ADVANTAGES
MEEF provides many advantages over other potential sources of finance including:
- There is no set payback period required with maximum loan terms of up to 17 years
- MEEF’s flexibility allows it to invest across a number of structures such as project or corporate finance. MEEF seeks to structure the transaction so that a highly-competitive rate can be offered on state aid compliant terms
- MEEF reviews applications from projects on an ongoing, rolling basis, with no deadline for applications or ‘funding rounds’
- MEEF seeks to address market failure and hence can provide flexible terms, for example, the potential to roll-up interest during construction, to allow early repayment at no cost, to sculpt interest payments to energy savings for innovative technologies
- The advantages of MEEF Finance vs. Comparables is set out in the graph below
