Garrigues counsels on $176m loan for San Martín project
Garrigues Peru has advised the senior lenders and VAT lender on the signing of a $176.6 million loan and a VAT loan of up to 70 million soles in favour of the San Martín solar project, which will be the largest solar plant in the country.
The transaction, signed on 8 March, marks a historic milestone as the first project financing of a renewable energy plant with a private Power Purchase Agreement by a company (Kallpa).
The San Martin solar project, under construction by Joya Solar (a subsidiary of Spanish developer Solarpack), will be located in Arequipa, and will become the largest solar PV plant in the country. With a total installed capacity of almost 300 MW, the plant (under construction) is expected to generate more than 819 GWh per year, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of more than 440,000 households. In addition, it will avoid the annual emission of more than 564,000 tonnes of CO2.
The operation also qualified as a “green loan”, as it is subject to the Green Lending Principles of the Loan Market Association, an organisation that identifies initiatives that promote environmental sustainability on an international scale.
BBVA, BNP Paribas, CA-CACIB and Natixis acted as lenders; BNP Paribas and Natixis acted as joint coordinators of the green loan; Natixis acted as administrative agent and offshore collateral agent; Scotiabank Peru as onshore collateral agent; and BBVA as VAT lender.
Other participating firms were Milbank as counsel to the senior lenders in the US; and Rodrigo Elias & Medrano Abogados and Clifford Chance as counsels to Solarpack/Joya Solar locally and in the US, respectively.
Joseba Olamendi, Guillermo Arbulú, Katty Briceño advised Solarpack/Joya Solar in-house.
Garrigues’ team advising the senior lenders included lead partner Diego Harman (pictured), and associates Carolina Pérez-Taimán, María José Cardoza, Giancarlo Vignolo and Rodrigo Ramos; while partners Thomas Thorndike and Diego Harman, together with associate Germán Gómez, advised the VAT lender.
