Clifford Chance LLP in Madrid and Uruguay’s Guyer & Regules have helped Spain’s Fotowatio Renewables Ventures (FRV) become the first major energy company to obtain long-term finance for a solar project in Uruguay.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) turned to Chadbourne & Parke LLP and FERRERE (Uruguay) to grant FRV a long-term credit facility worth US$80 million for its 50-megawatt Jacinta solar plant, which is under construction in the western department of Salto. Deutsche Bank, as collateral agent, retained Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.
Chadbourne & Parke and FERRERE also helped DNB, Norway’s largest bank, and Italy’s Intesa cancel an earlier short-term finance facility agreement granted to FRV in August. The Spanish company retained Clifford Chance and Guyer & Regules for the concurrent transaction.
“This was the first solar project of this size to secure a PPA with the public utilities provider and was then the first to achieve short-term financing,” says Gonzalo Secco of FERRERE. “Now it has become the first to achieve long-term financing on a project finance basis with the Inter-American Development Bank playing a significant role as it did in the past with major wind projects.”