White & Case Advises Neoen and John Laing on A$650 Million Portfolio Refinancing of Hornsdale Wind Farm

Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised Neoen and John Laing on the A$650 million portfolio refinancing of all three stages of the Hornsdale Wind Farm in South Australia. 

White & Case partner Joel Rennie, who led the Firm's deal team, said: "This deal is a landmark transaction in the renewables market and sets the benchmark for long term debt structures for renewables project finance. The financing structure has added material equity value to these assets for the Sponsors, which have performed strongly since commencing operation. The quality of these assets, and the contracts underpinning them, was recognised by the lender group in helping put this market leading structure together."

The refinancing brings together all three stages of the Hornsdale Wind Farm under one long term debt portfolio financing provided by an international syndicate of banks comprised of Korean Development Bank, Natixis, Mizuho Bank and Société Générale. The debt has multiple structures with varying tenors reaching out to 22 years.

Hornsdale Wind Farm was initially developed and financed in three separate stages, using a first of its kind project financing structure. All stages are now fully operational and together comprise of 99 wind turbines and a combined capacity of 315 MW. All three stages benefit from long term feed in tariff contracts with the ACT government and long term O&M contracts with Siemens.

The White & Case team that advised on the transaction was led by partners Joel Rennie (Sydney) and Ged Cochrane, Michelle Keen and Andrew Clark (all Melbourne), with support from counsel Andrea Reeves (Melbourne) and associates Isabella Jarrett, Chris Wallace and Kevin Chen (all Sydney) and Paul Marshall, Ned Simpson and Irene Argeres (all Melbourne).

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