Project Finance Practice Honored with Five Deal of the Year Awards

Project Finance International (PFI) has once again honored Latham’s Project Development & Finance Practice with five Deal of the Year awards for advising on financings in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The awards program seeks to highlight innovative transactions that are changing the landscape of the industry. 

Jeff Greenberg, Global Chair of the Project Development & Finance Practice, stated: “This recognition is a wonderful accomplishment for the practice, the firm, and the individuals who worked on each matter. It showcases our commitment to quality, dedication to clients, and tenacity toward innovation.”

The honored deals include:

• Americas Power Deal of the Year – KKR/NextEra: Latham represented the lenders on the complex project financing in connection with KKR’s US$900 million convertible equity investment in NextEra Partners’ (“NEP”) portfolio of solar and wind energy projects with a combined total capacity of 1,192 MW located in North Dakota, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, Michigan, Arizona, and Washington, US. KKR’s equity investment is in a newly formed structured partnership with NEP and features a unique buyout option for NEP. 
• North America Deal of the Year – Calcasieu Pass LNG: Latham represented Venture Global as sponsor in connection with the construction financing of the 10 MPTA LNG liquefaction and export facility and associated pipeline located in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. This is the largest project financing to close globally in 2019 and is the first of the “second wave” of US LNG projects to be financed. The project will include an LNG production and export facility with nine 1.2 million ton liquefaction blocks and two 200,000 cubic meter full containment LNG storage tanks. It will also include a lateral pipeline interconnecting with major interstate and intrastate natural gas pipelines. The project has 20-year LNG sale and purchase agreements with Shell, BP, Edison S.p.A., Galp, Repsol, and PGNiG.
• Asia-Pacific Oil & Gas Deal of the Year – Jambaran-Tiung Biru: Latham represented the sponsor, PT Pertamina EP Cepu, in the project development and financing for the Jambaran-Tiung Biru Project (JTB Project), involving the construction and development of a gas processing facility and pipelines, with an expected allocation of 192-MMSCFC to the gas offtaker located in Bojonegoro Regency, East Java, Indonesia. The JTB Project is among the largest upstream oil and gas projects to reach financial close in Indonesia in the past decade, and is the first project financing in the region to comprise conventional interest-tranches with Islamic financing tranches.
• European Broadband Deal of the Year – CityFibre: Latham represented CityFibre (a provider of wholesale fibre network infrastructure owned by Antin Infrastructure and West Street Infrastructure Partners) on its £1.12 billion debt package — the largest financing dedicated to full fibre rollout in the UK. The financing will be used to fund, among other things, the development of the first two million homes of CityFibre’s five million homes target.
• European Power Deal of the Year – Finerge: Latham represented Finerge Renewable Group, the second largest wind power producer in Portugal, owned by First State Investments on the €750m refinancing of its existing debt — the largest renewable deal in Portugal and one of Europe’s largest onshore wind financings.