Abu Dhabi solar firm Sweihan gets $701 mln via green bonds, slightly less than hoped

DUBAI, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi solar energy firm Sweihan PV Power Company sold $700.8 million in amortising green bonds at 3.625% on Thursday, slightly less than it was targeting on a turbulent day for global debt markets, a bank document showed.

The company was seeking to raise around $728 million, several bank documents showed. An investor presentation earlier this week said the deal could be between $710 million and $750 million.

Global debt markets have been rattled by the Federal Reserve's sudden shift towards a faster run of interest rate hikes and stimulus withdrawal. Borrowing costs have shot up as a result and investors have become more reluctant to lend to companies until they know how much further they could still rise this year.

The yield on Sweihan's green bonds was tightened from initial price guidance of around 3.875% after the debt sale drew roughly $1.6 billion in orders.

A bank document earlier on Thursday showed investors will receive semi-annual payments starting July 31 and the bonds, which will fund spending linked to the Noor Abu Dhabi solar plant, will likely have a weighted average life of 15 years.

Citi is lead global coordinator on the debt issue, while HSBC and MUFG join it as joint global coordinators.

BNP Paribas, First Abu Dhabi Bank and SMBC Nikko are joint lead managers and bookrunners.

Sweihan is 60% owned by Abu Dhabi's TAQA, while Japan's Marubeni Corp and China's JinkoSolar own 20% each. TAQA is 98.6% owned by the Abu Dhabi government.

The debt issue was billed as a "rare certified green bond offering out of the region" in the investor presentation, which said the project will have saved 9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted between 2020 and 2030.

Noor Abu Dhabi generates 881 megawatts of alternating current, which is sold to state-owned Emirates Water & Electricity Company (EWEC) under a power purchase agreement that concludes in 2049. EWEC is fully owned by Abu Dhabi state-owned holding company ADQ. (Reporting by Yousef Saba Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)