Akaysha refinances 4 Australian battery assets with A$1.75 billion facility
Key Facts
Akaysha Energy announced on October 20, 2026, a A$1.75 billion portfolio-level financing facility to refinance existing project-level debt for 4 battery storage assets in Australia. The new structure moves debt for Brendale, Orana, Ulinda Park and Elaine into a single portfolio facility, according to the company’s statement. The transaction therefore restructures financing for existing assets; it is not an announcement of wholly new financing for unfunded projects. Andrew Wegman, Akaysha’s managing director and chief financial and investment officer, said the facility "gives us the flexibility to accelerate our next wave of projects." The deal comes as the company describes a large Australian development pipeline, while construction continues on one of the assets covered by the financing.
The financing comprises 3 facilities with tenors of 5, 7 and 10 years, and also includes revolving liquidity and contingent facilities, according to the statement. The staggered maturities spread the financing across different periods, while the revolving liquidity and contingent facilities are components of the financing platform announced by the company. The statement did not specify how the facility value is allocated among the 4 assets or the amounts assigned to each tenor. A consortium of 11 banks supported the transaction, including ANZ, BNP Paribas, Bank of China, CIBC, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deutsche Bank, DNB, ING, Mizuho, Mitsubishi UFJ and Rabobank. The breadth of participating banks gives the deal a multi-party financing base, according to the list in Akaysha’s statement.
Akaysha links the refinancing to the financing flexibility it needs to continue developing a broader portfolio of assets, putting its Australian project pipeline at about 6 gigawatts of capacity and 25 gigawatt-hours of storage. The projects include large-scale batteries in Australia’s National Electricity Market, according to the company. The pipeline estimate therefore includes two distinct measures: the projects’ nominal capacity and the amount of energy they can store, rather than 6 gigawatts alone, as stated in the previous draft. Wegman said the portfolio structure gives the company the flexibility needed to accelerate its "next wave" of projects, linking the financing to Akaysha’s announced expansion plans. The statement did not provide an overall timeline for these projects or an estimate of the associated capital expenditure.
The 4 assets brought together under the financing are at different stages. The Elaine project in Victoria remains under construction, after work began in October 2025. The company says the project is on track for completion in the second half of 2027. In November 2025, Akaysha announced the close of A$460 million in construction financing for Elaine, backed by a 15-year virtual power purchase agreement with Snowy Hydro. The new financing brings the project into the portfolio structure alongside other assets, while construction continues on the company’s announced schedule. This background shows that Elaine entered construction before the financing platform was announced, and that the current facility refinances the assets’ debt as part of a broader arrangement.
The deal follows Waratah Super Battery’s entry into final commercial operations, according to Akaysha. The project has 850 megawatts of capacity and 1,680 megawatt-hours of storage, according to the company’s statement on its September 2026 commissioning. Akaysha also announced on June 30, 2026, that Orana had reached commercial operations, saying its operational battery storage capacity had exceeded 4 gigawatt-hours. Orana has 415 megawatts of capacity and 1,660 megawatt-hours of storage, with a virtual power purchase agreement covering 200 megawatts. Brendale began operations in January 2026 with 205 megawatts of capacity and 410 megawatt-hours of storage, about 5 months ahead of schedule. These developments place some of the covered assets in the context of their transition to operations, while Elaine remains under construction.
The announcement coincided with continued attention to Australian inflation data, although the company did not link economic indicators to its refinancing decision. The consumer price index rose 4.0% in the 12 months through August 2026, compared with a 3.5% increase through July, while trimmed mean inflation was 3.6% in the 12 months through August, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The bureau set October 28, 2026, as the release date for September consumer price index data. In preliminary October activity indicators, the S&P Global Australia Services PMI fell to 47.8 from 51.9 in September, according to coverage of the preliminary survey results by MT Newswires via Yahoo Finance. By contrast, the manufacturing index rose to 49.7 from 49.6 in September, according to InvestingLive, presenting mixed readings ahead of the next inflation data release.