Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On August 23, 2018, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of 14 lenders — including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — entered into a $1.3 billion USD syndicated loan agreement with South Field Energy LLC (SFS) — a Delaware-incorporated special purpose vehicle (SPV) indirectly wholly-owned by South Field Energy Partners LLC (SFEP), a Delaware-incorporated SPV jointly owned by AP South Field Holdings LLC (APSFH), an United States-incorporated indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Swiss privately-owned power plant developer Advanced Power AG (30% equity stake), Kyushu Electric Power Co. (20% equity stake), Showa Shell Sekiyu (15% equity stake), Development Bank of Japan, Inc. (DBJ) (15% equity stake), Shikoku Electric Power Co. (10% equity stake), NH Investment & Securities (6% equity stake), and Bechtel Corporation (4% equity stake) — for the 1182 MW South Field Energy Gas-Fired Power Plant Project. The facility included a $10 million USD Revolver tranche, a $10 million USD Working Capital tranche, a $119.1 million USD Letter of Credit tranche, and a $620 million USD Term Loan tranche. Each tranche carried a maturity period of 5 years with a final maturity date of August 23, 2018. ICBC contributed to the to the $620 million USD syndicated Term Loan tranche, which, at the time of signing, carried an interest LIBOR with 350 basis points (bps) for three years and stepped up to 375 bps. ICBC contributed $60 million USD to the $620 million USD syndicated Term Loan tranche. The following lenders committed the following amounts to the tranche: ABN AMRO Bank ($25.93 million USD), Atudot Pension Fund For Employees & Independents ($3.48 million USD), Bank of America ($60 million USD), CIT Group ($55.1 million USD), Clal Insurance Company ($56.52 million USD), Credit Agricole Group ($23.94 million USD), GE Capital ($80 million USD), Morgan Stanley ($29.1 million USD), National Australia Bank ($25.93 million USD), NH Investment Securities ($10 million USD), PIA Investment Management ($150 million USD), and Woori Bank ($40 million USD). The 1182 MW (or 1.18 GW) South Field Energy Gas-Fired Power Plant is a natural gas-fired, combined-cycle power plant that has the capacity to power more than one million homes. The facility is located on a 20-acre site in the Yellow Creek Township of Columbiana County, Ohio, US. It is US National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) compliant. The facility boasts two wet cooling towers as well as two combined-cycle units, both featuring General Electric (GE) 7HA.02 gas turbines connected to H65 generators, STF-D650 steam turbines attached to H53 generators, and heat recovery steam generators. GE also provided the Mark VIe distributed control system. The Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) approved the project in in September 2016. In September 2018, GE was awarded the contract to provide the heat recovery steam generators, steam turbine generators, and 7HA.02 gas turbines and Bechtel was appointed to be the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor on the project. Construction began on the site in May 2019 and the facility began operations in October 2021. The electricity produced by the South Field Energy Gas-Fired Power Plant is sold to one of the largest regional transmission organizations (RTO) in the US, PJM.