Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On November 9, 2021, a syndicate of 27 banks — including the Bank of China (BOC) — entered into a $1.750 billion USD syndicated loan facility agreement with Geysers Power Company, LLC (GPC) — a Delaware-incorporated limited liability company and geothermal power producer that owns and operates 13 geothermal power plants with a capacity of 725 MW in The Geysers, a geothermal energy field in northern California, the largest geothermal generators in the United States, that was a wholly-owned subsidiary, via Delaware-incorporated Geysers Intermediate Holdings LLC and then Delaware-incorporated Geysers Holdings LLC, of Texas-based electricity producer Calpine Corporation — for the 725 MW Geysers Geothermal Portfolio 2021 Refinancing Project. This loan carried a maturity period of seven years and a final maturity date of November 9, 2028. This loan was divided into two tranches: a $1.500 billion USD first lien senor secured sustainability-linked term loan facility tranche and a $250.00 million USD revolving letter of credit facility tranche. The new term loan tranche amended an existing seven-year, $900 million USD first lien senior secured term loan facility and the revolving letter of credit facility tranche was created via an amendment of three senior secured revolving letter of credit facilities totaling $200 million USD. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower for refinancing purposes related to the geothermal plant in The Geysers. On November 19, 2021, the borrower used a portion of the proceeds of the term loan to repay approximately $129 million USD of project debt associated with Russell City Energy Center, LLC (RCEC), a 600 MW natural gas-fired, wet cooled, combined cycle electric generating facility located in the City of Hayward, Alameda County, California, and $72 million of project debt USD associated with Los Esteros Critical Energy Facility, LLC (LECEF), a 320 MW natural gas-fired combined-cycle facility located at 800 Thomas Foon Chew Way, northern San Jose, Santa Clara County, California. BOC contributed $54.00 million USD to the $1.5 billion USD sustainability-linked term loan tranche, as captured by Record ID#107550 captures BOC's contribution. Then, on May 31, 2022, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of 31 banks — including BOC — entered into a $2.02085 billion USD syndicated loan agreement with GPC for the 725 MW Geysers Geothermal Portfolio 2022 Refinancing Project. This loan was divided into two tranches: a $1.77085 billion USD green term loan tranche and a $250.00 million USD revolving letter of credit tranche. The loan carried a maturity period of seven years and a final maturity date of May 31, 2029. The term loan tranche was a first lien senior secured facility. The green loan tranche featured Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that assessed the borrower's performance against sustainability metrics. The proceeds of the green term loan tranche were to be used for refinancing purposes related to the Geysers Geothermal Project, namely amending and replacing the existing $1.5 billion USD senior secured term loan facility, and for general corporate purposes including but not limited to the repayment of other Calpine debt and future renewable project development; the proceeds of the revolving letter of credit tranche were also available for use in eligible battery projects, up to $50 million USD. BOC contributed $80.00 million USD to the $1.77085 billion USD green loan tranche, as captured by Record ID#102929. In addition to BOC, the following lenders contributed the respective amounts to the $1.77085 billion USD green loan tranche: Allied Irish Banks p.l.c. (AIB) ($40.00 million USD), Amalgamated Bank ($35.00 million USD), Apple Bank For Savings ($40.00 million USD), Associated Bank ($57.50 million USD), Bank of America N.A. ($85.00 million USD), Bank of Montreal ($30.00 million USD), BankUnited ($26.00 million USD), Barings ($72.50 million USD), BNP Paribas S.A. ($74.02 million USD), Cadence Bank ($25.00 million USD), CaixaBank S.A. ($40.00 million USD), CoBank ($125.00 million USD), Crédit Agricole Group ($64.28 million USD), E.Sun Financial Holdings ($48.70 million USD), HSBC Bank PLC ($52.50 million USD), HSBC Global Asset Management ($20.00 million USD), Huntington National Bank ($57.50 million USD), ING Bank N.V. ($64.28 million USD), Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife) ($94.00 million USD), Mizuho Bank ($64.28 million USD), MUFG Bank, Ltd. ($64.99 million USD), National Australia Bank Limited (NAB) ($30.00 million USD), National Bank of Canada ($64.28 million USD), Natixis ($43.83 million USD), Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A. ($93.49 million USD), Siemens Financial Services GmbH (SFS) ($50.00 million USD), Société Générale S.A. (SocGen) ($57.50 million USD), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) ($64.28 million USD), and Truist Bank ($64.28 million USD). Crédit Agricole, MUFG, and Natixis served as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) Coordinators. Bank of America served as a joint lead arranger. BOC did not contribute to the $250 million USD revolving letter of credit tranche, which was provided by the following lenders in the respective amounts: Crédit Agricole ($30.00 million USD), DZ Bank AG ($10.00 million USD), ING Bank ($30.00 million USD), Mizuho Bank ($30.00 million USD), MUFG Bank ($30.00 million USD), National Bank of Canada ($30.00 million USD), Natixis ($30.00 million USD), SMBC ($30.00 million USD), and Truist Bank ($30.00 million USD).