June 22, 2015
Exeltium SA, a project company that acts as a buyer of electricity on behalf of large industrial companies in France, successfully closes on the refinancing of its existing senior debt.
Willkie client Exeltium SA, a project company acts as a buyer of electricity on behalf of large industrial companies in France, recently announced that it has successfully closed on the refinancing of its existing senior debt raised in 2010. A total amount of €1.435 billion was raised through a mix of a bank loan financing tranche of €1 billion and an institutional investor financing tranche of €435 million both tranches being pari passu. This represents one of the most significant refinancings in the power sector this year.
The bank tranche was provided by 11 Mandated Lead Arrangers (Banca IMI, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas, CaixaBank, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Banking, CIC, Deutsche Bank, ING, Natixis, Santander and Société Générale), while the institutional tranche secured in parallel by Exeltium was underwritten and subscribed by Deutsche Bank and Natixis for the benefit of 9 institutional investors.
Exeltium announced that the effective refinancing took place upon drawdown of the new facilities and repayment of the existing senior debt allowing it to take full benefit of an increased maturity of both its junior and senior debt in line with the project’s underlying revenue profile, and of substantially optimized terms and conditions as compared to the initial 2010 financing.
Exeltium buys electricity from EDF and sells it to electro-intensive industrial clients (who are also its shareholders) at a competitive and predictable price over the long term in order to help preserving the competitiveness of their industrial sites across France.
The deal was handled by partner Amir Jahanguiri, special European counsel Michael Armandou and associate Roy Charles Bates.
