ICBC Asia contributes $49.65 million AUD to a $251.4 million AUD syndicated loan for the 113 MW Boco Rock Wind Farm Project (Linked to Record ID#93199)

Project narrative

On June 25, 2013, a syndicate of five banks — including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited (ICBC (Asia)) — signed a $251,400,000 AUD loan agreement with Boco Rock Wind Farm Pty Ltd (BRWF) — a special purpose vehicle wholly owned by Thailand-listed Electricity Generating Public Company Limited (EGCO) — to finance the 113 MWac Boco Rock Wind Farm Project. This loan carried a maturity period of five years. In addition to ICBC (Asia), the following banks contributed to this syndicated loan: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ), The Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), and Westpac Banking Corporation. All lenders, included ICBC, contributed $49.65 million AUD ($46.00 million USD) to this syndicated loan. All lenders served as mandated lead arrangers. ANZ served as facility agent, account bank, facility agent and security trustee. Alongside $251.4 million AUD syndicated loan, EGCO contributed $109.8 million AUD in equity. The total project cost was $361.2 million AUD ($324 million USD). Financial closure was achieved on June 26, 2013. The purpose of this loan was to finance the acquisition and the construction of a 67 turbine wind farm with a capacity of 113.2 MW located 10 kilometers southwest outside of Nimmitabel, in the Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales approximately 35 kilometers south of Cooma. The wind farm was designed to accommodate future expansion to 121 turbines. Boco Rock Wind Farm was designed to generate enough energy to power approximately 40,000 New South Wales homes GE Wind Energy and Downer EDI Engineering Power, working together in a consortium, were the named as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractors in late June 2013. The consortium would supply, commission, and maintain the wind turbine, with GE providing $50 million AUD's of maintenance services over a 10-year period. GE was contracted to supply and commission 58 1.7 MW and nine 1.6 MW wind turbines. Environ served as the environmental consultant. Garrad Hassan served as the energy consultant. ROAM, GL Hassan, and Parsons Brinckerhoff served as the technical consultants. CWP Renewables, which had previously owned the wind farm before selling it to EGCO, was responsible for the operations and management of the wind farm. EnergyAustralia entered into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to purchase energy generated by the wind farm. Construction of the project was planned to begin in the third quarter of 2013 and to be completed by the first quarter of 2015. Construction began in August 2013. Boco Rock Wind Farm began commercial operations on November 28, 2014. On June 25, 2018, financial closure was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of six lenders — including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — entered into a $210 million AUD facility (loan) agreement with BRWF to refinance this loan. This refinancing is captured by linked Record ID#93199.