Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On November 24, 2015, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of eight lenders — including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — entered into a syndicated loan agreement with St. Joseph Energy Center LLC — a Delaware-incorporated special purpose vehicle (SPV) and joint venture of United States Power Fund III, owned by Area Management Corporation (62% equity stake), Development Partners Funding (18%), and Toyota Tsusho, Toyota Corporation's trading arm (20% equity stake) — for the 700 MW St. Joseph Combined-Cycle Power Plant Construction Project. The facility included a $395 million USD term loan, a $47.64 million USD letter of credit, and a $15 million USD working capital tranche. BNP Paribas S.A. and Crédit Agricole Group served as the coordinating lead arrangers on the deal. Each tranche carried a maturity period of 7.94 years and pricing at LIBOR plus 300 basis point (bps), and step-ups over the loan's term. ICBC contributed to the $395 million USD term loan tranche. ICBC contributed $55.4 million USD to the $395 million USD term loan tranche. In addition to ICBC, the following lenders contributed the following amounts to the term loan: BNP Paribas ($52.25 million USD), CIT Group ($50.9 million USD), Crédit Agricole Group ($51.5 million USD), ING Group ($36.15 million USD), Siemens Financial Services ($50 million USD), Société Générale S.A. (SocGen) ($47.9 million USD), and SunTrust Bank $50.9 million USD). The St. Joseph Energy Center is a 2×1 combined-cycle natural gas-fired power plant located in New Carlisle in St Joseph County, Indiana, USA. Phase one of the project provided for 700 MW of capacity and included two Nooter-Eriksen heat-recovery steam generators, two Siemens SGT6-5000F combustion turbine generators, and a Siemens SST6-5000 steam turbine generator. Kiewit served as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor. The White Plains, New York-based Development Partners was the original developer of the project. Siemens Energy provided the equipment and will provide 25 years of maintenance services. Phase one began construction on the greenfield power plant April 14, 2016, and was expected to be competed by March 2018. Commercial operations commenced on April 1, 2018, and a ribbon-cutting was held on June 15, 2018. Kiewit reported that the project was delivered on time and under budget. Phase two was reportedly well under way by the end of phase one. In 2016, St. Joseph Energy Center LLC petitioned the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to transfer the assets and ownership related to phase two to St. Joseph Phase II, LLC, a Delaware-incorporated limited liability company, for funding and construction purposes. St Joseph Energy Center sells power into the PJM market with a hedge on a merchant basis, and provides power for more than for more than 400,000 homes. In 2024, both Hoosier Energy Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Hoosier Energy) and Wabash Valley Power Association, Inc. (WVPA) each filed for a 50% stake in St. Joseph Energy Center LLC and St. Joseph Phase II, LLC, and was granted this in 2025 by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission; by 2025 the site had completely new joint ownership by the two Indiana not-for profit electric generation transmission cooperatives. The construction of phase two had not begun at the time.
Staff comments
1. The following entities also played the following roles in the transaction: Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy represented the sponsor, Toyota and Shearman & Sterling provided legal advice to lender(s).