Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised Banco Santander, S.A. (“Santander”) and Westbourne Capital, as mandated lead arranger and investor respectively, on the private placement of bonds to refinance the 11.8MW Malpartida photovoltaic plant, in Extremadura, Spain, owned by Viproes Energías Renovables, a subsidiary of Grupo Cyopsa. The transaction closed on 14 May 2020.
The bonds issued are subject to Spanish law and were subscribed to by institutional investors, managed by Westbourne Capital, through a private placement and traded on the “Quotation Board” of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Agensyd acted as bond trustee in the transaction.
Madrid-headquartered Santander is a multinational commercial bank and financial services company, and the leading issuer of project bonds to the Spanish renewables sector.
Westbourne Capital is an independently owned investment manager, focussed on investing in infrastructure worldwide for institutional clients. Established a decade ago, Westbourne Capital has invested in projects exceeding US$7.5bn across Europe, Australia and North America.
Grupo Cyopsa, chaired by Camilo Alcalá, is active in the renewables sector and infrastructure concessions for over 17 years.
The WFW Madrid Capital Markets team advising on the transaction was led by Partner Rodrigo Berasategui and supported by Senior Associate Jacobo Hermidas.
Rodrigo commented: “We are pleased to have once again helped Santander successfully close a renewables sector capital markets transaction, especially given the challenges everyone has faced over the past months, demonstrating investor confidence in the project. Appetite for project bond refinancings has only been increasing over the last few years, both under Spanish and English law. Our experience advising both arrangers and issuers on over a dozen such transactions demonstrates WFW’s standing as the law of choice for complex, high-value mandates of this nature”.
Cuatrecasas advised Grupo Cyopsa.
