Uría & Menéndez advises in the second largest wind farm project finance in Spain

Uría & Menéndez has advised a syndicate of lenders, lead by Banco Santander Central Hispano, S.A. (which also acts as Agent), Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. and Crédit Agricole Indosuez, Sucursal en España in a project finance transaction by which such syndicate of lenders has granted a facility of Euro 318 million in favor of the Spanish company Biovent Energía, S.A., such facility intended to finance the construction of 15 wind farms in the region of Castilla y León with a total installed capacity of 496 MW. The transaction was closed on 22 December 2003.

Biovent Energía, S.A. is a company which belongs to Iberdrola´s renewable energy group (the most important promoter of renewable energy projects in Spain and one of the most important throughout the world) and it is also participated by Gasindur and Caja de Ahorros de Salamanca y Soria (Caja Duero).

This transaction is the second largest wind farms project finance in Spain, both in terms of the amount of the facility and of the total capacity of the project wind farms.

The lawyers of Uría & Menéndez who have advised the syndicate of lenders were Carlos de Cárdenas (partner, Project Finance, Madrid)), Sebastián Sáenz de Santa María (senior associate, Project Finance, Madrid) and Ángel Pérez López (associate, Project Finance, Madrid), who advised in the production and negotiation of the financing documentation and in the due diligence on the project contracts and Daniel Vázquez García (associate, Environmental, Madrid)), who advised in the due diligence on regulatory matters.

Carlos de Cárdenas commented ?This transaction has been innovative in many respects, specially in that it will afford Biovent flexibility in defining the project subject to certain conditions. Moreover, this transaction has brought to an end an outstanding year for Uría & Menéndez in energy project finance transactions. Our firm has advised, among others, in the project finance transactions of CVC-Iberdrola, BBG, ESB Amorebieta, AES Cartagena, the refinancing of Elcogas and the securitization of the energy system deficit?.

Ana Buitrago, Alejandro García Granda and Rafaella Goiria were the in-house lawyers of Iberdrola working on the deal.