King & Wood Mallesons (
KWM) has advised on the $350 million financing of the 270 MW Sapphire Wind Farm in northern New South Wales.
Construction will begin in the New Year and the project is expected to be fully operational in the second half of 2018. Upon completion, the 270 MW Sapphire Wind Farm will be the largest wind farm in NSW, and will supply the equivalent of approximately 116,000 houses with clean energy.
The KWM team was led by Claire Rogers, a Partner at KWM’s Sydney office. Rogers advised the project lenders, comprising Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, EKF Denmark, and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
Rogers was supported by Partner Shannon Etwell, Senior Associates Chris Allfrey and Amy Munro, and solicitors Sarah Gant and Priscilla Hejtmanek.
“Sapphire will have a positive impact on the local community, creating new jobs during construction and providing a clean, sustainable energy alternative for residents once completed. We are very pleased to have been able to leverage our extensive experience financing wind farms across Australia to support our clients on the successful closing of this significant project,” said Rogers.
Sapphire marks the latest in a series of successful renewable energy projects KWM has advised on. KWM’s renewables team also recently assisted QIC (on behalf of its clients the QIC Global Infrastructure Fund and the Future Fund) on the $257 million acquisition of the 102 MW Nyngan and 53 MW Broken Hill solar plants. These solar plants were the first acquisitions of the $3 billion Powering Australian Renewables Fund.
KWM also advised on the establishment of Palisade’s Renewable Energy Fund, which has a mandate to invest approximately $500 million in Australia’s renewable energy market.
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