White & Case LLP’s Miami office and Argentina’s Martínez de Hoz & Rueda have helped French renewables company Neoen obtain a US$234 million loan for two solar projects.
DEG, The Interact Climate Change Facility, KfW, Proparco and Société Générale turned to Clifford Chance LLP‘s Washington, DC, Frankfurt, London and Paris offices and Argentine firm Bruchou, Fernández Madero & Lombardi.
Reed Smith LLP in London and Argentina’s Tanoira Cassagne Abogados advised Citibank as trustee and collateral agent.
The financing closed on 17 May.
One tranche is covered by a US$76 million guarantee from the World Bank, while another is covered by a buyer credit guarantee from Bpifrance Assurance Export, the first time it has granted one to an Argentine transaction.
Neoen won the Altiplano and La Puna projects, located in the northwest of Argentina, in the country’s RenovAr 1 and RenovAr 2 auctions. They have a combined output of 208 megawatts.
The two projects will sell their output to domestic grid operator Cammesa under a 20-year power purchase agreement.
Counsel to Neoen
In-house counsel – Juan Cristóbal Paris
White & Case LLP
Partners Carlos Viana and Jeannine Acevedo, and associates Ana Arias and Chris Bergan in Miami
Partners Jimena Vega Olmos, Juan Cruz Azzarri and Maximiliano Batista, and associates Sofía Leggiero, Belén Tokatlian and Tomás Dellepiane in Buenos Aires
Counsel to the lenders
In-house counsel to DEG – Astrid Rohr
In-house counsel to KfW – Alejandro Garrido
In-house counsel to Proparco – Javier Zapatero-Campo
In-house counsel to Société Générale – Clémence Jafari
Partner Fabricio Longhin, and associates Patricio Abal, Greg Jehle and Pablo Fekete in Washington, DC; partner Christof Häfner and associate Yan Ma in Frankfurt; associates Ed Bretherton, André de Sousa Vieira, William Adams and Da Kyung Kwon in London; and partner Delphine Siino Courtin and counsel Sophie Guilhem-Ducléon in Paris
Bruchou, Fernández Madero & Lombardi
Partner Alejandro Perelsztein and Ignacio Minorini Lima, and associates Andrés Chester, Emilio Díaz Reynolds, Facundo Sainato, Eliana Hougassian, Sofía Arroyo Bajda, Micaela Saieg, Pablo Muir, Cecilia Tononi, Eliana Vinocur and Cecilia Calosso in Buenos Aires
Counsel to Citibanka
In-house counsel – Carlos Vassallo and Cecilia Díaz Llamosas
Reed Smith LLP
Partner Ranajoy Basu and associates Anthony Riddle and Erika Kolb in London
Partner Alexia Rosenthal and associates Ignacio Criado Díaz and Carolina Demarco in Buenos Aires