Empresa de Energia del Pacifico S.A. E.S.P. (“EPSA”) IFC’s Borrower is a regulated, vertically integrated public services company with operations in distribution (600,000 clients in 39 cities), transmission (274 km), and power generation (1,047 MW).  EPSA is a mixed-owned company, incorporated as a limited joint stock corporation and listed in the Colombia Stock Exchange. The Company is owned 63.89% by private investors and 36.11% by state and municipal investors.

Celsia, through one of its subsidiary companies, Colener, is EPSA’s largest shareholder with 50.01% ownership.  Celsia is a power generation company with operations in Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica and combined generation capacity of 1,341 MW (excluding EPSA) through hydroelectric, thermal, solar and wind power plants.  It is the 4 th   largest generation company in Colombia and the 2 nd   in Panama. Celsia is the power/electricity arm of Grupo Argos, which holds 52.93% share in Celsia and also holds 11.86% of direct interest in EPSA.  State-owned and municipal investors include Corporation Autónoma Regional del Valle del Cauca (CVC) and Empresa Municipal de Cali (EMCALI), as minority shareholders.

Total Project cost is estimated at approximately the COP equivalent of US$180 m.  In the proposed investment, IFC would be the sole subscriber of corporate green bonds issued by EPSA for up to the COP equivalent of US$70m. The financing package will be complemented by a parallel bond issuance that will be fully subscribed by FDN (Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional) for up to the COP equivalent of US$70m.  Both bonds will be placed in Colombia’s “Segundo Mercado”, a market available to institutional investors.

Currently, EPSA  operates mainly in the southern region of the country (Tolima, Valle del Cauca, Cauca and Choco).

The four solar plants will be located in the departments of Valle del Cauca, Bolivar, Santander and Cesar.

This is a Category B project according to IFC’s Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability as the E&S impacts associated with the project are limited, generally project-specific and can be addressed through the implementation of good international industry practices.  

Although this project has limited footprint and solar parks will be placed mainly on land owned by the client or its affiliates, key risks are related to: (i) the protection of indigenous cultural sites at Valledupar solar park that is located inside an area designated to protect indigenous peoples access to ceremonial sites;  ( ii)  labor, OHS and working conditions of EPSA own staff as well as contractors during construction of solar projects; (iii) and potential limited impacts to local biodiversity and negative effects to small portions of fragments of natural vegetation for solar panels sitting