Watson Farley & Williams and Solivan Pontes have advised Sequoia Investment Management on the project financing of a 55 MW solar portfolio located in Poland. Janyszek Legal advised the borrowers.
The transaction is the first large project financing under the newly implemented auction support systems in Central-Eastern Europe.
Sequoia, based in London, is a specialist infrastructure debt asset management company. According to Solivan Pontes, "the project consists of 55 x 1MW solar plants, all of which will benefit from a 15-year guaranteed off-take via Poland's new Contracts for Difference (CfD) subsidy, which has been tendered in two auction rounds end of 2016 and mid of 2017. It will be completed in three phases, the first 15 MW of which is expected to reach commercial operation in February 2018. Construction of the entire portfolio is expected to be complete at the end of August 2018. The solar portfolio is owned by ReneSola, NYSE listed solar project developer and BNEF tier 1 solar module manufacturer with its headquarters in China."
The WFW London team advising Sequoia was led by Finance Partner Daisy East, assisted by Associates Jessica Greenwood, Suki Rees, and Adam Blythe. The Solivan Pontes team advising on Polish legal matters was led by Christian Schnell, head of the firm's Energy M&A team, and Banking & Finance Partner Justyna Chabocka, joined by Associates Piotr Dziwniel and Olga Wasilewska.
