Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On December 21, 2017, a syndicate of nine banks — including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — signed a $680 million AUD ($523.18 million USD) syndicated loan agreement with Stockyard Hill Wind Farm Pty Ltd — a special purpose vehicle (SPV) wholly owned by Goldwind Australia Pty Ltd — for the 530 MW Stockyard Hill Wind Farm (SHWF) Project. The deal reached financial close on March 28, 2018. The loan carried a maturity period of five years, a final maturity date of March 28, 2023, and an interest rate based on BBSY plus 175 basis points (bps). The proceeds of this loan were to be used by the borrower to construct a 530 MW wind farm located near Beaufort and Skipton in western Victoria. ICBC contributed $72.45 million AUD ($55.74 million USD) to the $680 million AUD loan. Record ID#93909 captures ICBC's contribution. In January 2020, Goldwind Australia sold a 49% stake in SHWF to Qatar-owned Nebras Power Investment Management B.V. (NPIM). By September 2022, Goldwind was actively considering selling its remaining 51% stake, and had tapped Lazard Australia to find buyers. On December 16, 2022, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of nine banks — including the Bank of China (BOC) and China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB) — entered into a $722.80 million AUD ($484.69 million USD) syndicated term loan agreement with Stockyard Hill Wind Farm Pty Ltd — an Australia-incorporated special purpose vehicle (SPV) jointly owned by Goldwind Australia Pty Ltd (51% equity stake) and Nebras Power Investment Management (NPIM) (41% equity stake) — for the 530 MW Stockyard Hill Wind Farm (SHWF) Refinancing Project. This loan carried a maturity period of five years and a final maturity date of December 16, 2027. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to refinance the SHWF, a 530 MW wind farm in western Victoria. BOC contributed $75.00 million AUD ($50.29 million USD) and CCB contributed $91.30 million AUD ($61.22 million USD) to the $722.8 million AUD loan. Record ID#101216 captures BOC's contribution. Record ID#101217 captures CCB's contribution. In addition to BOC and CCB, the following banks contributed the respective amounts to the loan syndicate: Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA ($91.30 million AUD), Deutsche Bank ($91.30 million AUD), National Australia Bank Limited (NAB) ($91.30 million AUD), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, Limited (OCBC Bank) ($75.00 million AUD), Shinhan Bank ($25.00 million AUD; $16.76 million USD), Société Générale S.A. (SocGen) ($91.30 million AUD), and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) ($91.30 million AUD). Deutsche Bank served as mandated lead arranger and hedge provider. On December 21, 2022, it was announced that Goldwind Stockyard Hill Wind Farm Limited agreed to sell a 49% interest in Stockyard Hill Wind Farm to Cheetah Bid Trust, a joint venture and special purpose vehicle owned by Palisade Investment Partners Limited's Diversified Infrastructure Fund (PDF) and Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super, for $334.6 million AUD ($223.4 million USD) after the wind farm's debt and other factors were taken into account, reducing Goldwind's holdings in SHWF to 2%. Goldwind sold the stakes in SHWF to help with its own liquidity issues. The sale was completed in January 2023.