Thomas Muskett-Ford

Four Clifford Chance LLP offices and Chilean firms Carey and Cubillos Evans Abogados have helped Santiago-based Latin America Power (LAP) obtain long-term project finance worth US$306 million for its 185-megawatt San Juan wind farm in Chile’s northern Atacama region.

A syndicate of European multilaterals and international commercial banks sought counsel from five White & Case LLP offices, Barros & Errázuriz Abogados in Santiago, and NautaDutilh in Rotterdam for the transaction, which closed on 19 November. Kroman Reumert in Copenhagen advised Danish Eksport Kredit Fonden.

BCI and Banco Security, which provided San Juan with a separate credit line worth US$30 million to offset the project’s value-added tax (VAT) obligations, sought counsel from Larraín Rencoret Urzúa Abogados in Santiago.

It is thought that the Amsterdam offices of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP and Hogan Lovells LLP advised LAP and the VAT lenders respectively, but this could not be confirmed prior to publication.

The 56 turbine San Juan wind farm will have an installed capacity of 185 megawatts once operational in 2016, surpassing the 115 megawatt El Arrayán wind farm to become the largest of its kind in Chile.

San Juan’s financing comes as solar and wind energy become increasingly attractive alternatives to conventional power sources in Chile. Market research published by Deutsche Bank in late October found the two renewable energy sources are now outperforming fossil fuels in local energy auctions for cost per megawatt hour of electricity. The news bodes well for the Bachelet administration, which wants to increase Chile’s renewables sector from 9 per cent of all power generated in the country to 25 per cent by 2025.


Counsel to San Juan
Clifford Chance LLP
Partner Chris Willott and associates Jose Cobena and Richard Mailey in São Paulo, partner Chris McIsaac in Washington, DC, attorney Alejandro Leon in Madrid and associate Greg Kahn in New York

Carey
Partners Felipe Moro and Juan Pablo Stitchkin, and associates José Miguel Bellagamba, Matías Vergara, Sophia Bobadilla, Loreto Ribera, María José Martínez, and Diego Yávar in Santiago

Cubillos Evans Abogados
Partner Arturo Urzúa and associate Domingo Irarrázaval in Santiago

Counsel to AB Svensk ExportKredit, Banco Security, DNB Group, KfW IPEX-Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui and Eksport Kredit Fonden
White & Case LLP
Partner Alejandro Leon and associates Thomas Pate, Nicolas Endre and Ana Maria Arias in Miami, partner Ian Cuillerier and associate Elizabeth Martinez in New York, partner-elect Jeannine Acevedo in Miami and New York, partner Juan Manuel de Remedios and associates Julio Peralta and Jimena Jorro in Madrid and counsel Tallat Hussain in London

White & Case SC
Partner Sean Goldstein and associate Adolfo Osorio in Mexico City

Barros & Errázuriz Abogados
Partners Francisco de la Barra and Gonzalo Molina, and associates Cristobal Pellegrini, Thomas Sutherland, Valentina Villalobos, Camila May, Mara Angelini and Agustín Lama in Santiago

NautaDutilh
Partner Jaco Belder and associate Roderick in Rotterdam

Counsel to Eksport Kredit Fonden
Kroman Reumert
Partner Jens Blomgren-Hansen Copenhagen

Counsel to BCI and Banco Security
Larraín Rencoret Urzúa Abogados
Partner Felipe Rencoret and associates Luis Alberto Izquierdo, Marcelo Alarcon and Nicolas Reyes in Santiago


Follow us in Wechat Síguenos en Instagram Síguenos en YouTube