Milbank and SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan have acted for global investor Actis on its strategic partnership with the Philippines’ Meralco and its subsidiary, Solar Philippines New Energy Corporation, advised by Latham & Watkins, to invest $600 million in the Terra Solar Project.

The deal gives the investors a 40 percent stake in the project, and represents the largest foreign direct investment for a greenfield infrastructure project in the Philippines.

The Terra Solar Project is poised to become the world’s largest integrated renewables and energy storage project and the single biggest solar project in the world. It will provide electricity to 2.4 million Philippine households.

“We are delighted to have advised Actis on this landmark investment in Terra Solar, their first investment into the Philippines. Their new partnership with Meralco and Solar Philippines will bring significant new renewable energy and more than 10,000 new jobs to the Philippines and greatly enhance the country's drive to a carbon-free future," said Milbank global capital markets partner and Hong Kong office head James Grandolfo.

Milbank’s team advising Actis included Hong Kong partners Grandolfo and Neeraj Budhwani, and associates Ari Singzon, Charmaine Yeo and Darren Lam. The team also included partner Bijan Ganji, special counsel Lafayette M. Greenfield, associate Bridget Golob in Washington, DC, and partner Alexander Rinne in Munich.

The SyCip Law team, which served as local counsel to Actis, was led by partners Vicente D Gerochi IV, Aaron Roi B Riturban, and Jan Celine C Abaño-Ranada.

“The unprecedented scale and size of the project led to regulatory concerns quite different from what energy projects in the Philippines would typically encounter,” the partners said of their experience working on the deal. “The fact that Terra Solar Project operates in a highly regulated industry, with governmental authorities such as the Department of Energy, Energy Regulatory Commission, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Agrarian Reform, and National Irrigation Authority and the privately-owned transmission company National Grip Corporation of the Philippines, overseeing the various aspects of the project, contributed to the challenges that parties had to consider in finalizing the deal.”

The Latham team was led by Singapore corporate partner Sidharth Bhasin and included counsel Carolyn Wong and associates Jonathan Wah and Jen Whee Lee.