ICBC contributes to $72.45 million AUD to a $680 million AUD syndicated loan for the 530 MW Stockyard Hill Wind Farm (SHWF) Project (Linked to Record ID#101216 and #101217)

Project narrative

On December 21, 2017, a syndicate of nine banks — including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — signed a $680 million AUD ($523.18 million USD) syndicated loan agreement with Stockyard Hill Wind Farm Pty Ltd — a special purpose vehicle (SPV) owned by Goldwind Australia Pty Ltd — for the 530 MW Stockyard Hill Wind Farm (SHWF) Project. The deal reached financial close on March 28, 2018. The loan carried a maturity period of five years, a final maturity date of March 28, 2023, and an interest rate based on BBSY plus 175 basis points (bps). In addition to ICBC, the following banks contributed to this syndicated loan: National Australia Bank Limited (NAB), ABN AMRO Bank N.V., The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Mizuho Bank, Société Générale S.A. (SocGen), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), and Westpac Banking Corporation. NAB served as the lead arranger. ICBC contributed $72.45 million AUD ($55.74 million USD), as did ABN AMRO, BTMU, Mizuho, SocGen, SMBC, and Westpac. CBA contributed $72.50 million AUD ($55.78 million USD) and NAB contributed $100.36 million AUD ($77.22 million USD). Goldwind provided $421.53 million AUD ($324.31 million USD) in equity. The entire project had a cost of $1.10153 billion AUD ($847.49 million USD). The proceeds of this loan were to be used by the borrower to construct a 530 MW wind farm located near Beaufort and Skipton in western Victoria. Specifically, the SHWF was located in an agricultural district 35 kilometers west of Ballarat near the Yarrowee River in Victoria's central highlands. The wind farm's perimeter stretched from five kilometers south of Beaufort near the Western Highway to about four kilometers north of Skipton. The wind farm was connected to the grid through 132 kV external overhead transmission lines, extending up to 75 kilometers, linking at the new Haunted Gully Terminal Station (HGTS) at the intersection of the Lower Darlington Road and Smiths Road. The wind farm consisted of 3.5 MW 149 Goldwind GS140 3s turbines, mounted on steel hours with a hub height of 110 meters. At its full capacity, the wind farm was designed to produce energy equivalent to the energy use of 391,000 Victorian households and its use would offset the emissions of about two million tons of carbon dioxide. The SHWF was reportedly the largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere. In May 2017, Goldwind purchased the Stockyard Hill Wind Farm Project from Origin Energy for $110 million AUD; at the same time, it signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Origin in which Origin agreed to purchase all generated energy and renewable energy certificates produced by the wind farm until 2030. Goldwind Australia was responsible for the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services for the wind farm and its operations and maintenance (O&M) during its service life. SNC-Lavalin and WBHO Infrastructure formed a joint venture to serve as plant contractor, the EPC contractor for all electrical infrastructure, and to build the wind farm's foundations, hardstands, internal access roads, and upgrade relevant public roads. In September 2018, Keppel Prince Engineering won a contract to supply 28 towers for the wind farm. In May 2018, Goldwind and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) awarded a contract to construct, own, and operate the transmission lines and a new terminal station in Haunted Gully for the wind farm to AusNet Services. AusNet subcontracted Zinfra to build the farm's transmission infrastructure. Blue Water Shipping was contracted to ship the turbines to Australia. WSP acted as the owner’s engineer. Goldwind Australia contracted AECOM to supply detailed civil design services and establish a traffic management plan to allow for “Early Works” construction for SHWF. The SNC-Lavalin WBHO Joint Venture contracted Robert Bird Group to provided civil and structural design and construction engineering services. The Chief Group assisted implementation of the construction of the internal roads and hardstands, excavations for the turbine foundations, and the installation of the drainage culverts. Mondo was contracted to construct and commission the HGTS and transmission lines to the Victorian Declared Shared Network (DSN). Construction was expected to begin in the first quarter of 2018. The State Government of Victoria approved the project in April 2018. The groundbreaking ceremony for the project was held on June 14, 2018. The final turbines were installed in December 2020. In July 2021, the farm passed its first hold point test in July 2021 and AEMO approved it to transmit up to 30 MW into the National Electricity Market (NEM). SHWF reached full commercial operations in September 2022. In January 2020, Goldwind Australia sold a 49% stake in SHWF to Qatar-owned Nebras Power Investment Management B.V. (NPIM). By September 2022, Goldwind was actively considering selling its remaining 51% stake, and had tapped Lazard Australia to find buyers. On December 16, 2022, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of nine banks — including the Bank of China (BOC) and China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB) — entered into a $722.80 million AUD ($484.69 million USD) syndicated term loan agreement with Stockyard Hill Wind Farm Pty Ltd — an Australia-incorporated special purpose vehicle (SPV) jointly owned by Goldwind Australia Pty Ltd (51% equity stake) and Nebras Power Investment Management (NPIM) (41% equity stake) — for the 530 MW Stockyard Hill Wind Farm (SHWF) Refinancing Project. This loan carried a maturity period of five years and a final maturity date of December 16, 2027. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to refinance the SHWF, a 530 MW wind farm in western Victoria. BOC contributed $75.00 million AUD ($50.29 million USD) and CCB contributed $91.30 million AUD ($61.22 million USD) to the $722.8 million AUD loan. Record ID#101216 captures BOC's contribution. Record ID#101217 captures CCB's contribution. In addition to BOC and CCB, the following banks contributed the respective amounts to the loan syndicate: Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA ($91.30 million AUD), Deutsche Bank ($91.30 million AUD), National Australia Bank Limited (NAB) ($91.30 million AUD), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, Limited (OCBC Bank) ($75.00 million AUD), Shinhan Bank ($25.00 million AUD; $16.76 million USD), Société Générale S.A. (SocGen) ($91.30 million AUD), and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) ($91.30 million AUD). Deutsche Bank served as mandated lead arranger and hedge provider. On December 21, 2022, it was announced that Goldwind Stockyard Hill Wind Farm Limited agreed to sell a 49% interest in Stockyard Hill Wind Farm to Cheetah Bid Trust, a joint venture and special purpose vehicle owned by Palisade Investment Partners Limited's Diversified Infrastructure Fund (PDF) and Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super, for $334.6 million AUD ($223.4 million USD) after the wind farm's debt and other factors were taken into account, reducing Goldwind's holdings in SHWF to 2%. Goldwind sold the stakes in SHWF to help with its own liquidity issues. The sale was completed in January 2023.