Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On February 7, 2017, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of 12 banks — including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — entered into a $325.00 million USD syndicated senior secured loan agreement with RA Generation Funding, LLC — a Delaware-incorporated special purpose vehicle (SPV) and wholly-owned subsidiary of LS Power Equity Partners III, L.P., a Delaware-incorporated buyout fund managed by LS Power Equity Advisors LLC, a Delaware-incorporated power and energy infrastructure and investment manager of LS Power Development, LLC — for the 1328 MW RA Generation Funding Portfolio Refinancing Project. This loan was divided into two tranches: a $300.00 million USD term loan tranche and a $25.00 million USD revolving credit facility (RCF) tranche. This loan carried a maturity period of seven years, a final maturity date of March 7, 2024, and a variable interest rate of LIBOR plus a margin of 325 basis points (bps). ICBC contributed $35.00 million USD to the $300 million USD term loan tranche. In addition to ICBC, the following lenders contributed the respective amounts to the tranche: Associated Bank ($15.00 million USD), Bank of Montreal ($25.00 million USD), BNP Paribas S.A. ($15.00 million USD), CIT Bank ($20.00 million USD), CoBank ($20.00 million USD), GE Energy Financial Services (EFS) ($33.00 million USD), KEB Hana Bank ($35.00 million USD), ING Capital LLC ($30.00 million USD), Investec Bank ($22.00 million USD), Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU) ($15.00 million USD), and NH Investment & Securities Co., Ltd (NH I&S) ($35.00 million USD). BTMU provided the entirety of the $25 million USD RCF tranche. The proceeds the loan were used by the borrower for the refinancing of acquisition bridge debt in May 2016 used to acquire a 1328 MW portfolio of two open-cycle natural gas-fired peaking generation facilities in the PJM Interconnection market, from NRG Energy: the 878 MW Aurora Generating Station in Aurora, DuPage County, Illinois and the 450 MW Rockford I and II Energy Center in Rockford, Winnebago County, Illinois. ING Capital served lead bookrunner. ICBC, BTMU, BNP Paribas, KEB Hana Bank, GE EFC, NH I&S, and Bank of Montreal served as joint lead arrangers. Associated Bank, Investec, CoBank and CIT were participants. On September 28, 2017, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of 13 banks — including ICBC — entered into an amendment and up-sizing agreement with RA Generation Funding, LLC for the $325 million USD loan, up-sizing the loan by $120 million USD, making the term loan tranche now $400 million USD and the RCF tranche now $45 million USD. The proceeds of the up-sizing were used by the borrower to provide distribution to its shareholder, LS Power Equity Partners III. ICBC did contribute to the up-sizing (and apparently had its contribution reduced to $34.80 million USD), which was arranged by ING, Associated Bank, CIT Bank, CoBank, GE Capital EFS, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas. In addition to ICBC, the following lenders contributed the respective amounts to the now $400 million USD term loan tranche: Associated Bank ($25.00 million USD), Bank of Montreal ($24.80 million USD), BNP Paribas S.A. ($20.00 million USD), CIT Bank ($30.00 million USD), CoBank ($40.00 million USD), Credit Suisse AG ($25.00 million USD), Deutsche Bank AG ($80.00 million USD), GE Energy Financial Services (EFS) ($65.00 million USD), KEB Hana Bank ($19.90 million USD), ING Capital ($38.80 million USD), Investec Bank ($21.80 million USD), and BTMU Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group ($14.90 million USD). The now $45 million USD RCF tranche had its contribution breakdown as such: Associated Bank ($5.00 million USD), BNP Paribas ($5.00 million USD), CoBank ($10.00 million USD), Deutsche Bank ($10.00 million USD), ING Capital ($10.00 million USD), and BTMU ($5.00 million USD).