The $605m refinancing deal has several unique features
Two leading Australian law firms have acted in an inventive refinance for a renewable energy company.
King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) advised Infigen Energy on its recent $605m refinancing and the company’s unwinding of existing global corporate finance and its project finance arrangement for its Woodlawn project.
Gilbert + Tobin (G+T) acted for Goldman Sachs as arranger and underwriter of a senior term loan. The firm also advised Westpac and CommBank, which acted as super-senior revolving credit facility lenders to the refinance, undertaken through a five-year syndicated-facility agreement.
Infigen has been a long-time client of KWM, and the transaction complements to the firm’s corporate work for the company over the years, which has been led by M&A partners Shannon Finch and David Friedlander.
The KWM team that worked on the refinance was led by partners Rebecca Finkelstein and Yuen-Yee Cho.
Finkelstein said that the firm helped Infigen to implement a capital structure that provides a platform for delivering their business strategy and continues their evolution as an active energy market participant. The firm financing, infrastructure, energy, capital markets and taxation expertise, and worked closely with the Infigen Energy team to deliver a market-leading financing solution,” she said.
“The financing had several unique features, combining an institutional term loan facility underwritten by Goldman Sachs, with a super-senior revolving working capital/bonding facility arranged by Infigen Energy. As far as we are aware, this is the first super-senior working capital/bonding facility in the Australian loan markets for a listed corporate,” Cho said.
The KWM team on the financing included partners Mark Upfold and Dominic Bortoluzzi, and solicitors June Guo, Joshua Saville, Boer Ma, and Paul Propper.
G+T explained that while a term loan combined with a super-senior revolving credit facility structure has been previously a feature of the leveraged finance market, the use of the structure for the Infigen refinance is an innovative development in the Australian corporate loan market.
G+T’s previous work with term loan combined and super-senior revolving credit facility structures includes the private equity acquisitions of iNova, Novotech, and Laser Clinics. For the Infigen deal, the firm’s banking and infrastructure team advised the lenders on all aspects of the refinancing, including structuring, financing terms, and syndication.
The top firm’s team was led by partner John Schembri. The team also included partner Adela Smith and lawyers Stuart Cormack, Lisa Hamilton, Billy Quist, and Sean MacDonald.
“This new facility and innovative approach will give the Infigen Energy Group the debt structure and flexibility to pursue its strategic objectives in the dynamic Australian energy market,” Schembri said.
