Clifford Chance and local firm Lee and Li have advised the sponsors on the NT$18.7 billion ($627 million) project financing of Formosa 1, Taiwan's first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, with Linklaters and Tsar & Tsai advising the lenders.
The project is part of Taiwan’s goal of delivering 5.5GW of energy from offshore wind farm projects by 2025. The financing package will be will be used to refinance the first phase of the wind farm (8MW, which commenced operations in April 2017) and fund the development of the second phase (120MW, due to be completed in late 2019).
The sponsors of the Formosa 1 project comprised Macquarie Capital, Denmark’s Ørsted, and lead developer Swancor Renewable Energy Co. The Clifford Chance team was led by partners Nicholas Wong and Matt Buchanan, who were supported by Philip Sealey, the firm's Asia-Pacific head of renewable energy. Partner Paul Landless provided derivatives advice.
The lenders included EKF, Denmark’s export credit agency, as well as Cathay United Bank, Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank, EnTie Commercial Bank, KGI Bank, ANZ, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, DBS Bank, ING, MUFG and Société Générale The Linklaters team was led by projects partner James McLaren, co-head of the Asian green energy group. He was supported by John Pickett, global head of the renewables practice.
Last year, Linklaters acted for project sponsor Ørsted on its acquisition of a 35 percent interest in the project from Swancor Renewable.
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