White & Case advises Fotowatio Renewable Ventures on A$1.2 billion portfolio finance

Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) Australia on the A$1.2 billion portfolio financing of eight PV plants with a total installed capacity of nearly 1GW and the greenfield financing of FRV Australia's first stand-alone BESS project.

"We are honoured to have supported FRV on its growth in Australia over the last 12 years," said White & Case partner Brendan Quinn, Head of Project Finance in Asia-Pacific, who co-led the deal team. "FRV developed the first commercial scale solar farm in Australia, Royalla, and this significant financing is a milestone in the maturity of its business in Australia and sets the company up to continue to be a leading power developer in the Australian market. We are seeing more portfolio financings in the Australian market as renewable energy developers focus on securing funding for development pipelines and ensuring flexibility in their current and future financing needs."

The portfolio financing includes all FRV Australia's operating and under-construction plants including the Lilyvale, Moree, Sebastopol, Goonumbla, Metz, Winton, Walla Walla and Dalby solar farms, and secures construction funding for the Terang BESS project, the first utility scale BESS project of FRV Australia, with a capacity of 100 MW capacity in Victoria.

"This was an interesting transaction as the portfolio included operating and development projects," said White & Case partner Candice Ota, who co-led the deal team. "International financial institutions continue to be attracted to Australian assets and we're pleased to support FRV to deliver more renewable generation in Australia."

The transaction included a mix of domestic and international financial institutions including ING Bank, Westpac Banking Corporation, MUFG Bank, Société Générale, Norddeutsche Landesbank, Mizuho Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, United Overseas Bank, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China.

The White & Case team in Australia that advised on the transaction was led by partners Brendan Quinn and Candice Ota (both Melbourne) and included partner Andrea Reeves (Melbourne) and associates Donovan Ang, David Lagesse, SuZanne Yap, Nicolette Tan, Swati Gupta, Crystal Nguyen, Sebastian Cross and Charlie Barker (all Melbourne).

Press contact
For more information please speak to your local media contact.