Clifford Chance and US duo fuel €750m Turkish power plant financing
Clifford Chance, Paul Hastings and White & Case have led on the signing of a €750m (£600m) loan to finance the construction of a 450MW lignite-fired power plant and related lignite mine and limestone quarries project in Tufanbeyli in Turkey.
Nicholas Wong
The deal saw all parties sign an agreement to grant a €142m (£113m) commercial loan facility and a separate larger €608m (£486m) loan facility, which is being backed by the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, or K-sure.
Clifford Chance, together with Turkish associate firm Yegin Legal Consultancy, acted for the London branch of Société Générale in its role as structuring bank and bookrunner. Paris-based partner Nicholas Wong led the team and was supported by banking and finance associates Sohini Kar-Purkayastha, Laura Marriott, Nadezhda Varbanova, Kristin Spiekermann in Paris and Henry Yip in Frankfurt.
Banking and finance partner Mete Yegin of Yegin Legal also acted on the deal alongside senior associate Ali Can Kolay.
A combined Tokyo, Hong Kong and London team from Paul Hastings acted for K-sure. Corporate partner Joseph Kim in Tokyo and finance partner Justin Jowitt in London led the deal, alongside corporate associates Gustave Runeland in Tokyo, Rebecca Coveney in London and Lisa Park in the firm’s Hong Kong office.
White & Case advised Turkish energy provider EnerjiSA Enerji Üretim in its role as borrower. The team comprised energy and project finance partner Jason Kerr and associates Andrew Nosworthy, Tarek Mohanna and Seyfi Can Kandemir in the firm’s London office.
The deal will see K-sure provide political and commercial risk insurance cover for €608m for the lender group which consists of Société Générale, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Natixis, Raiffeisen Bank International, UniCredit Bank Austria, Akbank, Fortis Bank and Erste Group Bank.
Background to this deal:
The deal comes as a growing number of law firms cast their eyes towards the Turkish market for a range of project finance and banking and finance deals (6 February 2012).
Clifford Chance formally launched its Istanbul office in 2010 and has an affiliate relationship with Yegin Legal Consultancy (YLC) due to Turkish bar rules which stipulate that law firms must have an alliance with a local firm. YLC founder Mete Yegin joined Clifford Chance as a consultant in 2009, having previously led the banking and finance department at Turkish firm Pekin & Pekin (11 April 2012).
White & Case has had an office in Turkey’s largest city since 1985. Earlier this year the firm acted for Turkish-based Denizbank when it was acquired by Russia’s Sberbank for $3.9bn. Linklaters acted for Sberbank on the deal (11 June 2012).
