LONDON, 20th September, 2019 — Milbank LLP represented the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Overseas Private Investment Corporation and International Finance Corporation, in their first co-lending experience in connection with the financing of the $400 million financing of the 252MW Lekela West Bakr Wind Project located on the Gulf of Suez in Egypt. The project is being developed by Lekela Power BV., a 60%/40% joint venture between the leading emerging markets private equity investor, Actis Energy Fund III, and, the pure play renewable energy development company, Mainstream Renewable Power. A COPS bond issuance closed in September 2019 to fund Overseas Private Investment Corporation’s loan to the project company. This is only the second Egyptian wind BOO project to reach financial close under its power purchase agreement in July 2019. Milbank advised Japanese ECAs JBIC and NEXI in the precedent-setting structuring and closing of the first wind BOO project in December 2017.
Once the wind farm facility is operative, it will have the capacity to provide power to the more than 350,000 homes in that region, generating more than 1,000GWh of clean energy per year.
The London deal team was led by Global Project, Energy & Infrastructure Finance partner John Dewar, along with senior associates Suzanne Szczetnikowicz, Şeyda Duman, Jenna Darler and associates Emily Whittaker and Yi Ming Chan with assistance from colleagues in the US including partner Alec Borisoff, counsel Alexis Sainz and associate Binta Mamadou.
Lead partner John Dewar said: “We are pleased to have facilitated the financing of the second Egyptian Wind BOO project. The Lekela West Bakr financing adds to Milbank’s well-established prominence in both the renewables sector and the Middle East/North Africa region.”
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