Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised a consortium of lenders comprising leading global infrastructure investors Infranity, I Squared Capital and Rivage Investment on the €410m mezzanine financing of MaxSolar GmbH’s (“MaxSolar”) German solar portfolio.
This is one of the largest solar portfolio development financings in Germany to date and will result in the installation of 2GW of capacity over the next five years. In addition to financing investments in photovoltaic and storage projects, the facility will also finance the development of further sites by MaxSolar.
MaxSolar is a leading developer of renewable energy systems and EPC service provider for photovoltaic systems in Germany and Austria. With this financing, the company aims to accelerate its goal of becoming a major independent producer of electricity from renewable sources. MaxSolar currently has a solar project pipeline in various stages of development with a total capacity of 6.5 GW.
Infranity is an asset management company specialising in investments in sustainable and resilient infrastructure assets and businesses.
I Squared Capital is a private equity firm focused on global infrastructure investments in the energy, utilities, transportation and telecommunications sectors in North America, Europe and selected high-growth countries such as India and China.
Rivage Investment is an independent asset manager specialising in investments in a sustainable world. This includes debt financing of investments in tomorrow’s infrastructure at various stages of development by private investors as well as the public sector.
The multidisciplinary WFW Germany team that advised the lenders was led by Projects & Structured Finance Partners Florian Kutzbach and Thomas Hollenhorst on English and German law matters respectively. They were supported by Senior Associates Kathy Buenaventura and Alejandra Hagedorn and Trainees Marcus Hensher and Jack Oldbury (English law) and Senior Associates Marie-Theres Recifo and Roman Schneider and Associate Dr Carlos Landschein (German law).
In addition, Partner Dr Wolfram Böge and Associates Tarek Fadl and Marian Henkes advised on German corporate law while Partner Verena Scheibe, Managing Associate Verena Weider and Senior Associate Manuel Rustler on tax law. Partner Dr F. Maximilian Boemke provided public law advice.
Florian commented: “We are delighted to have advised the lenders on this landmark project. Its successful completion required a tremendous team effort across multiple service lines and our German office network. This clearly demonstrates once again WFW’s ability to advise on complex financing transactions in the energy and infrastructure sectors, including advising on English law from Germany”.
Thomas added: “The transaction highlights the attractiveness of the dynamic German solar market for international investors and in particular for private debt funds specialising in energy infrastructure assets. WFW’s outstanding expertise in cross-border renewables transactions came to the fore here, especially as regards the fast-growing solar market”.
