Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised Ellomay Capital Ltd. (“Ellomay Capital”) and its subsidiary, Ellomay Holdings Luxembourg Sarl (“Ellomay Luxembourg”), on a €110m project financing for its 198 MW Italian solar portfolio. The deal is expected to close in the coming weeks.
The financing will be shared with a subsidiary of Ellomay Luxembourg as senior secured bonds issued in several tranches during the construction phase. The multi-tranche structure was agreed to allow funding in an optimised, gradual manner to align with the progress of the project’s construction. The funds resulting from the securities issue will be on-lent to each of the portfolio projects according to their financing needs. The portfolio consists of seven operational projects including three solar facilities, with an aggregate capacity of approximately 38 MW and that are connected to the grid, as well as additional projects with an aggregate capacity of approximately 160 MW that have reached ready-to-build status.
Ellomay is an Israeli company registered on the NYSE and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the trading symbol “ELLO”. Since 2009, Ellomay Capital has invested in numerous renewable energy and power projects across Europe and in the US and Israel.
The multi-jurisdictional WFW Finance team that advised Ellomay was led by Hamburg Partner Sven Fretthold, supported by Milan Counsel Matteo Trabacchin, Consultant Dr Sebastian Wulff and Associates Finja Schmale, Daniele Sani and Giulia Chiarvesio. Milan Senior Associate Alfredo Guacci Esposito advised on tax law and Milan Partner Tiziana Manenti provided due diligence advice, assisted by Associates Antimo Rocco Nersita, Sonia Basso and Marco Iannotti on regulatory and corporate matters and by Senior Associate Anthony Bellacci and Associate Antonio Ferrero for real estate.
Sven commented: “We are pleased to have assisted Ellomay Capital in raising the funds they need to finance the construction and associated costs of their Italian solar portfolio through a bespoke multi-tranche structure allowing for a wider range of financial investors. This mandate once again underlines WFW’s outstanding expertise advising on international project financings in the renewable energy sector”.
Ori Rosenzweig, Chief Investment Officer at Ellomay, said: “The best way to overcome market obstacles is to create your own solutions with your most trusted partners. This is the third time we have worked with Sven to set a new market standard. The first was on the closing of the 300 MWp Talasol PV project in Spain and the second on its refinancing at fixed interest rate of 3% for 23 years”.
