GUELPH, Ontario, Sept. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Canadian Solar Inc. (the "Company" or "Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ), one of the world's largest solar power companies, announced that it has completed the sale of three additional solar power plants totaling 30.4 MWp for JPY11.5 billion (US$103.1 million) to the Canadian Solar Infrastructure Fund, Inc. ("CSIF", Tokyo Stock Exchange ticker 9284) in Japan. This expands CSIF's current capacity to 105.6 MWp from 75.2 MWp.
The 30.4 MWp portfolio consists of the 27.3 MWp Daisen-cho Plant (CS6X-320P) in Tottori Prefecture, the 2.1 MWp Ena-shi Plant (CS6U-325P) and the 1 MWp Takayama-shi Plant (CS6U-330P) in Gifu Prefecture. The plants reached commercial operation in August, September and October 2017, respectively. The electricity generated is being sold under 20-year feed-in-tariff contracts at the rate of JPY40/kWh, JPY32/kWh and JPY32/kWh, respectively.
Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar, commented, "We are pleased to complete the additional solar power plant asset drop down to our partner CSIF in Japan. This is another example of our successful global asset monetization strategy, which is the foundation for building greater value for Canadian Solar and all shareholders. Our asset management team is doing an excellent job executing on CSIF's growth strategy in Japan and has quickly crossed the important 100 MWp milestone threshold. We expect there will be additional mutually beneficial asset drop down opportunities with CSIF in the future."
About Canadian Solar Infrastructure Fund
CSIF was launched on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as an infrastructure investment fund last October with initial capacity of 72.7 MWp. Capacity increased to 75.2 MWp in February 2018 after the first asset drop down of two additional solar power plants totaling 2.5 MWp from Canadian Solar. In order to fund the just completed second asset drop down, CSIF completed a second public offering of 46,667 units priced at JPY102,180 per unit on September 6, 2018. Canadian Solar subscribed to 7,000 units in the follow-on offering and expects to maintain its approximately 15% ownership of CSIF. CSIF's total assets under management ("AUM") is JPY47.493 billion (US$427.4 million) after giving effect to the offerings and acquisitions, using the median project valuation report amounts for existing assets and acquisition price for these new assets. Canadian Solar Asset Management K.K., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, manages CSIF as its asset manager. Canadian Solar O&M Japan K.K., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, provides operation and maintenance services to CSIF.
About Canadian Solar
Founded in 2001 in Canada, Canadian Solar is one of the world's largest and foremost solar power companies. As a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules and provider of solar energy solutions, Canadian Solar has a geographically diversified pipeline of utility-scale power projects in various stages of development. In the past 17 years, Canadian Solar has successfully delivered over 29 GW of premium quality modules to over 100 countries around the world. Furthermore, Canadian Solar is one of the most bankable companies in the solar industry, having been publicly listed on NASDAQ since 2006. For additional information about the Company, follow Canadian Solar on LinkedIn or visit www.canadiansolar.com.
Canadian Solar Safe Harbor/Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release 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; 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 and China; 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; 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 26, 2018. 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.
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