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. 26 lenders, including BOC, contributed $54.00 million USD to the $1.5 billion USD sustainability-linked term loan tranche, with one lender, Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A. (Rabobank), contributing $96.00 million USD. Record ID#107550 captures BOC's contribution. In addition to BOC, the following lenders contributed the respective amounts to the to the $1.5 billion USD sustainability-linked term loan tranche: Allied Irish Banks plc (AIB), Amalgamated Bank, Inc., Apple Bank for Savings Inc., Bank of Montreal, BankUnited, Barings LLC, BNP Paribas S.A., CaixaBank S.A., CoBank, ACB, Crédit Agricole Group, DZ Bank AG, E.SUN Commercial Bank, Ltd., HSBC Bank, Huntington National Bank, ING Bank N.V., KB Kookmin Bank, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife), Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank, National Australia Bank (NAB), National Bank of Canada, Natixis, Siemens Financial Services GmbH (SFS), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), and Truist Bank. All 27 lenders, including BOC, contributed $9.26 million USD to the $250 million USD revolving letter of credit facility tranche. AidData does not consider letters of credit to be flows. 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.