Six law firms convene Alto Maipo $3bn energy refinancing in Chile
Carey and Norton Rose Fulbright acted for the lenders while Baker Botts and Claro guided the borrowers Alto Maipo and AES Gener. Strabag, the project contractor, instructed Eyzaguirre & Cía and Pepper Hamilton.
Alto Maipo is a 531MW hydroelectric project in Chile which includes two run-of-river facilities located on the upper Maipo River southeast of Chile’s capital Santiago. Chilean power producer AES Gener, behind the project, hopes the multi-billion dollar restructuring program will kickstart work on the complex.
The deal will see the project contractor, which is the Chilean subsidiary of Austria’s Strabag, provide financing to AES Gener, in exchange for $392 million that will be repaid to the company through the first 20 years of its commercial operation.
A syndicate of development financial institutions (Inter-American Development Bank, Overseas Private Investment Corporation International Finance Corporation), and Chilean and foreign commercial banks (Itaú Corpbanca and its New York branch; Banco de Crédito e Inversiones; Banco del Estado de Chile; DNB Bank ASA and KfW-IPEX Bank GmbH) are part of the senior lender group.
As part of the second financial restructuring of the project, Deutsche Bank and Santana, a publicly listed Chilean corporation, became senior lenders after acquiring the full loans and commitments in the financing of the IFC and KfW-IPEX Bank and part of those owned by of Itaú Corpbanca and Banco del Estado de Chile.
Carey acted as Chilean counsel to the lenders with partners Felipe Moro and Ricardo Reveco on lead roles. The lenders retained Norton Rose Fulbright as New York counsel, with partner Marissa Alcala leading the team.
Partner Mark Spivak led the Baker Botts squad which advised Alto Maipo and AES Gener under New York law. For Chilean law, Alto Maipo and AES Gener relied on a team at Claro led by partners Rodrigo Ochagavía and Ariel Mihovilovic.
The project contractor, Strabag, instructed Pepper Hamilton as NY counsel and Eyzaguirre & Cía. as Chilean counsel. The latter team was fronted by partner Cristián Eyzaguirre and Antonio Marinovic.
