Guadalta closes refinancing of solar farms in Spain
Watson Farley & Williams, an International law firm, has recently announced that it has advised Liberbank as agent to the financing consortium on the €50 million (US$56.5 million) financial restructuring of two Spanish photovoltaic plants owned by energy producer Guadalta, a subsidiary of leading international energy developer Grupo Naturener.
The two parks, with an aggregated capacity of 7.5 MW, are located in the municipalities of Manzanares and Almuradiel in Ciudad Real province, Spain.
The 2.5 MW solar photovoltaic farm located in the municipality of Almuradiel started commercial operations in June 2008. The model and type of module are Sunpower, Yingli (mono and polycrystalline), while the class of inverters are Siemens Sinvert 100 M (100kW).
The 5 MW solar PV farm located in the municipality of Manzanares started commercial operations also in 2008 and it was developed by Grupo Ascia.
The financing consortium comprises the following seven Spanish, German, Japanese and Belgian banks: KfW IPEX-Bank, Portigon, Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale (Helaba), Novo Banco, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, KBC Bank, with Liberbank (former Banco de Castilla la Mancha) acting as agent.
The Madrid-based team of Watson Farley & Williams advising the banks was led by Spain Managing Partner María Pilar García Guijarro, assisted by senior finance associates José María Anarte and Esther González, and associate Jacobo Hermidas. Partner David Diez advised on regulatory matters, and partner Luis Soto on the tax aspects of the transaction.
María Pilar García Guijarro, Watson Farley & Williams Spain Managing Partner, commented:
“Advising on a transaction involving such a wide variety of banks is a clear demonstration of WFW’s ability to successfully act on complex deals of this kind. This year, we have acted as lead adviser on some of the largest and most high profile sector restructurings such as those of T-Solar’s renewables portfolio Tuinn Zone, Olivento and Renovalia, confirming our position as the go to law firm in the Spanish renewable energy sector”.
