Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised Irish independent renewable energy producer Amarenco on a €29 million bond refinancing of a portfolio of operational photovoltaic assets located in France, representing a combined capacity of 123 MW.
Amarenco secured this financing with Sienna Investment Managers, which is subordinated to a pool of bank lenders. With a maturity of 10 years, the line is provided at the level of a dedicated assetco through the vehicles Sienna Sustainable Infra Debt III SCA SICAV RAIF and Predirec ENR 2. The annual production of the solar power plants will save almost 20,000 tonnes of CO2.
With over 200 employees, Amarenco is established on three continents and has deployed more than 2,000 large-scale solar photovoltaic and storage infrastructure projects, mainly in Europe. The company has raised nearly €500m from renowned investors since 2020 and has more than 500 MW of solar power installed in Europe.
Sienna Investment Managers is a pan-European, multi-expertise asset manager of the listed investment company GBL. Sienna Investment Managers has over €37bn AUM. Its private debt funds Sienna Sustainable Infra Debt III SCA SICAV RAIF and Predirec EnR2 are dedicated to financing renewable energy and the energy transition projects.
The cross-border multi-disciplinary WFW team that advised Amarenco was led by Paris Finance Partner Laurence Martinez-Bellet, supported by Senior Associate, Hugues Hounkpati, Associates, Chloé Moriceau, Simon Allain, Julie Michelangeli and Jihanne Flegeau-Kihal on the finance aspect. Paris Partner Thomas Rabain, assisted by Associates, Thibaut de Toytot, Lucile Mazoué and Chloé Léonard advised on the corporate/M&A aspects. Paris Partner Laurent Battoue provided his expertise on regulatory and public law matters while Paris Counsel Helène Ibos assisted on tax matters. Hamburg Partner Thomas Hollenhorst, supported by Managing Associate Jakob Paluszkiewicz as well as Munich Senior Associate Roman Schneider and Associate Stefan Riedmeyer advised on German law regarding the financing of the transaction.
