Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised the European Investment Bank (“EIB”) on its €30m financing of the innovative CHO Tiper project, an 11 MWe renewable power generation plant in Thouars in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region of France. WFW assisted EIB on the set-up and implementation of the financing including all legal due diligence.
Developed by CHO Power, a subsidiary of Europlasma Group, CHO Tiper will use a proprietary plasma gasification process to produce clean electricity from recovered solid fuel and forestry waste, with no environmentally harmful emissions. The plant will provide enough electricity for 45,000 people each year while preventing 50,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste being sent to landfill and 28,000 tonnes of CO2 being released into the atmosphere.
The CHO Tiper project includes a total investment of €60m and will enable the creation of 65 long-term jobs locally. It was approved with the support of leading independent experts including Fichtner (project technical audit), Willis Towers Watson (insurance) and EY (financial modelling).
The WFW Paris team advising EIB was led by Finance Partner Laurence Martinez-Bellet, assisted by Associates Marie Lesschaeve, Arnaud Conquis and Yassine Allam. Partners Laurent Battoue and Arnaud Troizier advised on the public law and regulatory law aspects of the deal, with Partners Arnaud Félix and Romain Girtanner leading on corporate and tax matters respectively.
Laurence commented: “We are really pleased to have assisted the EIB on the financing for this innovative project. Our team is very active in the energy transition sector and it is encouraging to see more and more positive support for the sector from the EU”.
