Renewable energy · Hamburg & Nicosia

Capital for your projects — and for your company.

You know your projects. We make sure the capital structure, the financial model and the transaction process match them.

0+transactions delivered
> €5 bncumulative volume
Senior Advisorson every mandate – without exception
0 %focus on renewable energy

Figures reflect the team’s track record, including prior roles.

Capcanto is an internationally active advisory boutique for renewable energy — solar, wind, storage, hydrogen, biogas and district heating. Hanseatic values carry the work: trust, integrity, discretion.

Two companies share the work: Capcanto GmbH in Hamburg holds client mandates, manages projects and provides commercial operations management for asset owners across German-speaking Europe. Capcanto Ltd. in Nicosia develops the financial models and transaction structures behind it — for Capcanto GmbH’s mandates as well as for its own international mandates.

Our services

Financing and transaction advisory for renewable energy — from structure to disbursement, and beyond. You decide where we come in.

Transaction Advisory

Sell-side through the financing lens: we know how the buyer finances the purchase price — and build data room, model and equity story against the other side’s question catalogue. From preparation through signing and closing.

Teaser & Info Memo · Data Room · Valuation · Due Diligence · SPA · Purchase Price Bridge

Structuring & Financial Modelling

Modelled to the FAST standard: assumptions, calculation and output cleanly separated, no hidden hardcodes — so that banks, investors and buyers can follow the same assumptions and test sensitivities themselves.

FAST · P50 / P75 / P90 · DSCR · LLCR · Debt Sizing · Base & Downside Cases

Project Management

We manage transaction and delivery: timelines, workstreams, interfaces and reporting — through to handover into operations.

Process Management · DD Coordination · Financial Close · Handover

Financing Solutions

We structure the right capital side: senior debt in the ProjectCo, mezzanine debt at HoldCo level, corporate tranches for pipeline and team — up to financing your own portfolio on the way to becoming an independent power producer.

Senior Debt · Mezzanine Debt (HoldCo) · Corporate · Bridge · Refinancing · IPP build-up · Intercreditor

Commercial Management

Post-closing and commercial operations management on behalf of asset owners: we monitor what carries your financing — covenants against the facility agreement definition, reporting in required form and time, distribution capacity, refinancing windows.

Covenant Monitoring · Reporting · Cash & Waiver · Exit Readiness

AI Advisory

We advise and support you in integrating AI into your own processes — from identifying the use cases through tool selection to implementation in the day-to-day of project development, financing and operations.

Use Cases · Tool Selection · Process Integration · Data & Reporting · Enablement

We come in where you need us

DevelopmentSite control, permitting
Ready to BuildPermits, EPC, PPA/EEG
Financial CloseFacility agreement, drawdown
ConstructionDrawdowns, completion
OperationsCash flow, covenants
RefinancingRepayment, upsizing
Exit / RepoweringSale, follow-on

Just the financial model, just the financing round, just the sale process — or all of it, from structure to disbursement. What never changes: the same senior advisors who designed the structure also negotiate it.

Six terms, six economic decisions

What exactly is mezzanine debt?

Mezzanine debt sits between bank debt and equity: raised at HoldCo level, in the company above one or several project companies. Subordinated to the ProjectCos’ senior debt, senior to equity, secured over shares rather than over turbines, modules or land — those stay with the senior bank. Economically it substitutes for equity without giving up ownership: you pull capital for the next projects out of the portfolio you have already built, and keep the full upside. The decision behind it is therefore not “debt or equity”, but: which is more expensive — the coupon on a subordinated tranche, or the share of the company an equity partner keeps for good?

How much senior debt can the project carry?

It is not the capital cost that determines the loan amount, but the cash flow. Banks use two ratios: the DSCR compares a year’s operating surplus with that year’s interest and amortisation — at 1.25 there is a 25 % buffer left after debt service. The LLCR measures the same across the remaining term and absorbs individual weak years. From the required minimum cover, the sustainable loan amount follows in reverse — the debt sizing. What matters just as much is the yield case: the calculation runs not on the expected value (P50) but on a conservative scenario (P90) — the output reached in nine out of ten years. The gap between the two easily moves the loan amount by double-digit percentages, and with it your equity requirement.

Cash or capitalised interest — cash or PIK?

Cash interest is paid as it accrues and consumes liquidity from day one. PIK interest (payment in kind) is added to the principal instead and falls due with repayment — no cash leaves the company at first, but the repayment amount compounds. In development and construction, when a project earns nothing yet, this is often the only structure that works at all. In operations it is a trade-off: cash interest is cheaper, PIK creates headroom for the next generation of projects. In practice a blend does the job — part current, part deferred. That split determines how much free liquidity you actually have in the first years of operation.

How do two lenders get along?

As soon as a second provider of capital joins the bank, it must be settled who holds which rights if things go wrong. That is what the intercreditor agreement does: it sets the payment waterfall, defines the conditions under which distributions may flow to the subordinated level, and obliges the junior lender to stand still as long as the senior bank is being served. In return it grants the junior lender information and cure rights. Without that agreement neither side signs — which is why we negotiate it alongside the facility agreement, not after it. Left too late, this point routinely costs weeks shortly before financial close.

When is mezzanine worth it — and what is it not comparable to?

First, the classification: secured junior capital for renewables has little in common with what trades as mezzanine in real estate. There, capital is often unsecured and exposed to development risk, with return expectations to match. Here it sits above a portfolio that is already producing: assets in operation, revenues from feed-in tariffs or long-term PPAs, a senior facility being serviced — and, as security, the shares in exactly those companies. That is a different risk profile, and it is assessed differently. Whether it is worth it is decided by the comparison with the alternative, not with the bank rate: selling shares instead means giving away a permanent slice of all future earnings and of the exit proceeds — mezzanine ends with repayment. The maths works as long as the return on the projects it funds exceeds the cost of that capital and debt service still holds in the downside case. That is exactly what we test in the model before a structure goes to market.

Why is the headline price not what you end up with?

What gets negotiated is usually an enterprise value — what gets paid is the equity value. In between lies the price bridge: financial debt assumed is deducted, cash on hand added, and adjustments follow for working capital, decommissioning obligations, outstanding capex or tax positions. Two offers with an identical enterprise value can be hundreds of thousands of euros apart after that bridge. Equally important is how the existing financing is treated: whether the buyer assumes, refinances or has to repay it is a genuine value lever — a cheap legacy facility can lift the achievable price noticeably. So we build the bridge from the outset and compare offers by what actually reaches you.

Technologies

Solar

Photovoltaics — from project-rights transactions to day-to-day operations.

Wind

Onshore projects in development, repowering and operation.

Storage

Battery storage — stand-alone or co-located with generation.

Hydrogen

Early-stage structures for production and offtake.

Biomass & Biogas

Biogas plants and biomass power assets — existing portfolios, repowering and flexible dispatch.

District Heating

Heat networks and grid-connected generation — transactions, structuring and operations.

Why Capcanto

01

We understand your project.

Part of our team has worked inside a project developer — so we know the reality of permitting, grid connection, EPC and auction deadlines first-hand: from single projects to portfolios, in Germany and across the EU.

02

We understand capital.

We have worked on the bank side, the mezzanine side and the equity side — and know how each of them calculates and decides. Particular experience: financing and capital protection while building an own asset base (IPP).

03

We deliver.

We deliver the result, not the presentation: through to disbursement, through to closing — and onwards. We don’t tell you what would be theoretically possible; we develop an economically sound structure, model it, negotiate it and execute it.

reliablefast & responsivesenior advisors onlyagilepragmatic focus on what matterseyes on the goal

How we work

At eye level

You know your project better than any adviser. Our job is to translate the capital side so that you can decide.

Honest in our assessment

If a structure is not financeable or a price not achievable, we say so before the mandate — not in week twelve.

Senior throughout the process

The same contacts from structure through term sheet to disbursement. No handover to a junior team after the pitch.

Aligned interests

The greater part of our fee is success-based and falls due at completion. We earn when you close — not when we bill hours.

We think beyond the single mandate

From the second project onwards we know your structure, your bank and your model — and the process gets faster every time.

Confidential from the first minute

Projects, price expectations and sale intentions stay with us. Every substantive exchange starts with a mutual non-disclosure agreement, and the market is approached only once you have released it — the longlist, the sequence and the timing are yours to set.

A first conversation is free of charge, confidential and open-ended. If we are not the right partner, we tell you in the first meeting.

Arrange a conversation

Management

Florian Ellwanger, Geschäftsführender Gesellschafter der Capcanto GmbH und Director der Capcanto Ltd.

Florian Ellwanger

Managing Partner of Capcanto GmbH Director of Capcanto Ltd.

Florian Ellwanger has 20+ years of experience in structuring and arranging financing and equity investments, with a strong focus on European renewable energy projects.

Contact

One brand, two specialised units: mandates, projects and operations management in Hamburg — structure, modelling and financing in Nicosia.

Hamburg · DACH region

Capcanto GmbH

Hamburg · Germany

  • Origination and client relationships across the DACH region
  • Contracts with clients in its own name
  • Project management through transaction and delivery
  • Commercial operations management on behalf of asset owners


Phone: +49 40 822 118 401

Nicosia · International

Capcanto Ltd.

Nicosia · Cyprus

  • Develops and maintains the modelling methodology
  • Structuring and financial modelling
  • Financing solutions and mezzanine structures
  • Its own international mandates


Phone: +357 2200 7373

Capcanto GmbH and Capcanto Ltd. are separate legal entities; each contracts in its own name and is responsible for the services it provides. Neither acts as agent or representative of the other.