ICBC participates in $115 million syndicated loan for 250MW Villa María Power Plant Construction Project

On April 7, 2017, UENSA S.A. — a special purpose vehicle and subsidiary of MSU Energy Group — signed a $115 million syndicated loan agreement with Banco de Galicia y Buenos Aires S.A., Banco Hipotecario S.A., BACS Banco de Crédito y Securitización, Banco Macro S.A., and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Argentina) S.A. for the 250MW Villa María Power Plant Construction Project. The loan carried a 5.5 year maturity (final maturity: August 2022) and an unknown interest rate. As of September 30, 2017, the loan’s amount outstanding was $101.5 million was outstanding under this loan, and, as of March 13, 2018, its amount outstanding was $104 million. The purpose of the project was the construction and operation of the dual-fuel thermoelectric Villa María power plant in the Province of Córdoba. The purpose of the power plant itself is to provide electricity to Argentina's national electricity grid, the Argentine Interconnection System (SADI). As such, UENSA S.A. entered into a 10-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Compañía Administradora del Mercado Mayorista Eléctrico S.A. (CAMMESA) – the government entity in Argentina that manages the wholesale energy market and the dispatch of electricity to the SADI – on December 29, 2016, agreeing that the generation capacity and electricity generated by the Villa María power plant would be sold exclusively to CAMMESA. The plant includes three General Electric turbo generators (model LM6000-PC Sprint), each with 50 MW of nominal generation capacity. Additionally, a 3.2 km pipeline was built to transport natural gas from the TGN North Pipeline to the Villa María power plant, and a 132 kV high voltage line was built to transport the power generated by the plant to the SADI. General Electric International, Inc. (Argentina Branch) was the EPC contractor responsible for project implementation. The Villa María power plant began operating on January 25, 2018.

Additional details

ICBC’s contribution to the $115 million syndicated loan is unknown. For the time being, AidData assumes equal contributions ($23 million) across the 5 participants in the loan syndicate.

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