White & Case advises banks on Mexico power station financing

White & Case has advised a group of banks on a $640 million financing provided to Techgen for the 900-megawatt, natural gas-fired Pesquería combined cycle electric power plant located in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo León.

The banks advised included Natixis, New York Branch, Citibank, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, HSBC México and Grupo Financiero HSBC. 



The plant (pictured) is one of the largest to be subject to a project financing in Mexico in many years, and is supported by power purchase agreements from private offtakers, according to the law firm.

“Most international project financings of major thermal power plants in Mexico have been supported by power purchase agreements with Comision Federal de Electricidad, the state-owned national electric utility, or its affiliates; this transaction presented a major innovation, and is truly ground-breaking for Mexico,” said Carlos Viana, partner and head of White & Case’s Latin American practice.

The project was developed by companies of The Techintgroup: Ternium, Tecpetrol, Tenaris and Tamsa, and built by Techint Ingeniería y Construcción, with a configuration of three gas turbines and one steam generator that will supply power to the Tenaris, Tamsa and Ternium industrial plants in Mexico.

White & Case served as international and Mexican counsel for the financing parties, and the project is the latest of several recent power project financings for the firm in Mexico.



The White & Case team that advised on the transaction includes partners Vic DeSantis, Carlos Viana and Juan Ruenes; counsels Anna Andreeva and Pedro Morales; and associates Lauran Guijarro, Juan Carlos Llorens, Peter Ott, Emily Holland, Jonathan Black and Maria Vanegas.

The borrower and sponsors were advised by Mitrani Caballero Ruiz Moreno, as international counsel, and Ritch, Mueller, Heather y Nicolau in Mexico, Guyer & Regules in Uruguay, Ernst & Young Abogados, in Spain, Homburger AG in Switzerland, and Elvinger, Hoss & Prussen in Luxembourg.