CaixaBank's Corporate & Investment Banking division has signed a £500 million bilateral credit facility with Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission plc (SHET), its largest bilateral financing transaction in the UK utilities sector; the facility amount is the disclosed consideration, with no further deal terms specified.

CaixaBank is a Spanish banking group headquartered in Valencia, operating in the UK since 2003 and licensed as a branch since 2016. The CaixaBank Group posted a net profit of €5.89 billion in 2025, up 1.8% year on year. Its UK branch employs 43 people, targeting 54 by 2027, and held an £8 billion investment portfolio at year-end 2025, up 48%; branch-level turnover and EBITDA are not separately disclosed. CaixaBank CIB has provided more than £3 billion to UK utilities over the past year, of which this is the largest single bilateral piece.

SHET transmits electricity across northern Scotland. Its turnover and EBITDA are not disclosed, and no separate financing figure beyond the £500 million facility is stated. Advisors: none mentioned.

The structural driver is Ofgem's RIIO-3 price control, effective 1 April 2026, which locked in £28.1 billion of upfront funding within a £90 billion transmission and gas investment pipeline, with SHET named among the licensees covered. That determination turns a known five-year capex programme into predictable borrowing demand, which a relatively new UK entrant like CaixaBank is well placed to capture without a legacy balance sheet to defend elsewhere.

SHET gains a funding source outside its existing lender relationships at the point its allowed capital programme steps up. CaixaBank gains a foothold ahead of the RIIO-3 capex ramp, and its prior syndicated roles in Scottish Power's network build-out and the East Anglia Three wind farm point to a deliberate sector strategy rather than one-off deal flow.

There is no Irish party here, but Ireland's transmission operators face a comparable CRU-regulated investment cycle, and this bilateral-first approach is a plausible template for CaixaBank entering that market next.

Source: CaixaBank / Ashurst