GUELPH, Ontario, April 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Canadian Solar Inc., (the "Company", or "Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ), one of the world's largest solar power companies, today announced that it has won Environmental Finance's Project Bond of the Year award for its innovative dual-tenor green project bond issuance in Japan.

Environmental Finance, an industry leading global publication, recognized best practices and issues that were significant in the development of the green bond sector at its Green Bond Awards 2018. The panel of judges included some of the world's biggest green bond investors. In total, 32 awards have been given out worldwide.  Other than Canadian Solar, winners also include Barclays, Republic of France, City of Paris and City of Cape Town.

The world's first dual-tenor bond served as the financing vehicle for Canadian Solar's 19MW Gunma Aramaki Solar Power Plant when it was issued in April 2017. Canadian Solar paved the way for this pioneering structure by combining maturity of 1.5 years and 18.7 years within a single-tranche of bond. The innovation in the tenor mechanism provided Canadian Solar with the flexibility to maximize the value of its investment through a potential sale to Canadian Solar Infrastructure Fund, recently listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, while preserving long-term financing support for its solar power project. Today, Canadian Solar is positioned as the leading international issuer of green project bonds in Japan.

The Gunma Aramaki project bond has been assigned an investment grade rating of "A", the highest rating in Japan PV sector, by the Japan Credit Rating Agency, Ltd. ("JCR") and has been independently certified as green bond in accordance with the Green Bond Principles 2016 published by the International Capital Market Association ("ICMA") by the Japan Research Institution, Limited ("JRI"). Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd. acted as the bond arranger.

"We are honored to receive the Project Bond of the Year Award and to be recognized for delivering world-class global innovation to finance solar investments," commented Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, "This is a remarkable accomplishment and we will continue to work with our financial partners and investors to grow a high-quality project development pipeline that underscores our long-term success in Japan."

Full results of the Green Bond Awards 2018 can be found at https://www.environmental-finance.com/content/news/environmental-finance-green-bond-awards-winners-revealed-2018.html.

About Canadian Solar Inc.

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 also 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 26 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.

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 27, 2017. 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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SOURCE Canadian Solar Inc.