Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised a syndicate of ten banks on a milestone non-recourse multi-currency up to €1.3bn green financing granted to Recurrent Energy, subsidiary of Canadian Solar, for the construction and development of renewable energy projects across Europe.
The financing, initially sized at €674m with potential upsizing to approximately €1.3bn, will support both full merchant and contracted projects and includes provisions for euros and pounds sterling equally. With the upsize tranche, this will enable the construction of nearly 2 GW of solar and battery storage assets located primarily in Spain and the UK as well as in Italy, the Netherlands, France and Germany.
Leading Spanish multinational commercial bank and financial services company Banco Santander CIB acted as global coordinator and sole bookrunner, ING acted as sustainability coordinator and original issuing bank, with the remainder of the syndicate comprising ABN AMRO, BBVA, Banco Sabadell, Rabobank, HSBC, Intesa Sanpaolo, Natwest, and NORD/LB.
Recurrent Energy is one of the world’s largest and most geographically diversified utility-scale solar and energy storage project development, ownership and operations platforms, with an industry-leading team of in-house energy experts.
The cross-border WFW team that advised the lenders was led by Madrid Finance Partner Rodrigo Berasategui, working closely with Senior Associate Laura Fontán and Associates Antón Ramil and Sara Estradera. They were supported by London Projects Partner Katherine Best working alongside Associates George Garthwaite, Tom Harvey and Elizabeth Lee. London Partner Rob McBride and Associate Kristina Buckberry provided derivatives expertise. Italian law expertise was provided by Finance Partner Mario D’Ovidio, supported by Counsel Matteo Trabacchin, Associate Francesca Angelilli and Tax Senior Associates Alfredo Guacci Esposito and Marianna Telesca. New York Partner Susanne Burstein and Associate Chloe Sucato advised on the NY law aspects of the transaction.
Rodrigo commented: “We are very pleased to have once again been able to help promote global sustainability initiatives in the Spanish banking sector and beyond. We thank Banco Santander and all the other members of the syndicate, as well as Recurrent Energy, for their trust in us to help them get this landmark financing over the finish line. It is testament to WFW’s unrivalled position as the ‘go-to’ firm for complex, multi-disciplinary, cross-border legal advice in the energy sector”.
Clifford Chance acted as Recurrent Energy legal counsel.
