ICBC contributes $70 million USD to the $437 million USD floating-rate loan of a $635 million USD loan for the 1085 MW Indeck Niles Combined-Cycle Facility Project

Project narrative

On April 25, 2019, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of 13 lenders — including China Merchants Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — entered into a $634.6 million USD loan agreement with Indeck Niles, LLC — a Delaware-incorporated special purpose vehicle (SPV) of Korean Southern Power Co., Ltd. (KOSPO) (50%), Daelim Energy Co., Ltd. (now DL Energy) (30%) and Indeck Energy Sercives, Inc. (20%) — for the 1085 MW Indeck Niles Combined-Cycle Facility Project. The $635 million USD debt portion of the facility included: a $437 million USD floating-rate loan, a $10 million USD working capital tranche, a $150 million USD fixed-rate loan, and a $37.4 million USD letter of credit. The $437 million USD floating-rate loan and the $10 million USD working capital loan each carried a maturity period of five years plus the period of construction (approximately 3 years) and an interest rate of 300 basis points (bps) over LIBOR. Record ID#110467 captures China Merchants Bank's $30 million USD contribution to the $437 million USD floating-rate loan. Record ID#110468 captures ICBC's $70 million USD contribution to the loan. In addition to China Merchants Bank and ICBC, the following lenders contributed these amounts: Aozora Bank ($15 million USD); BNP Paribas ($26.46 million USD); Crédit Agricole Group ($35.66 million USD); East West Bank ($30 million USD); Migdal Insurance and Financial Holdings ($70 million USD); Morgan Stanley Bank ($27 million USD); Nomura Securities ($26.46 million USD); Nonghyup Bank ($65.63 million USD); and Woori Bank ($41 million USD). Record ID#110469 captures China Merchants Bank's $1.05 million USD contribution to the $10 million USD working capital tranche. In addition to China Merchants Bank, the following lenders provided these amounts to the loan: BNP Paribas ($1.97 million USD); Crédit Agricole Group ($1.97 million USD); Nomura Securities ($1.97 million USD); and Nonghyup Bank ($3.03 million USD). The $37.4 million USD letter of credit tranche was provided by the following lenders: China Merchants Bank ($3.95 million USD); BNP Paribas ($7.37 million USD); Crédit Agricole Group ($7.37 million USD); Nomura Securities ($7.37 million USD); and Nonghyup Bank ($11.34 million USD). AidData does not consider letters of credit to be flows. Hana Financial Group and NH Investment & Securities provided the $150 million USD in fixed rated notes. The proceeds of the loan were used to develop and construct the 1085 MW Indeck Niles Combined-Cycle Power Plant, located in Niles, Cass County, Michigan. The Niles project was first proposed by Indeck in 2001, but was paused due to high gas prices, and recommenced in 2016. Although the project had acquired proper permitting by 2017, a lack of funding delayed the project. After KOSPO and Daelim Energy joined as equity investors and the April 2019 deal went through, construction commenced in August 2019 and, at that time, the plant was expected to reach commercial operations in March 2022. The site reached commercial operations in June 2022. The site sells power to the PJM market. Kiewit Power Constructors Co. served as the engineering, construction and procurement (EPC) contractor. PIC Group, Inc. then served as the operations and maintenance (O&M) provider. The plant uses General Electric (GE) H-class combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) equipment, including two combustion turbine generators, two heat recovery steam generators, and one steam turbine generator.