Slaughter and May advised Orient Overseas (International) Limited, one of the world’s largest integrated international container transportation and logistics companies, on the financing of its new 8,888 TEU container ship, OOCL Utah.

OOCL Utah is the sixth of eight 8,888 TEU vessels commissioned by OOCL. This is the second financing of such vessels Slaughter and May has acted on, having previously advised OOCL on the financing of five 13,208 TEU vessels.

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Financing: Peter Jolliffe (partner), Andrew Johnson (partner), John Budd (associate)

The Energy & Infrastructure Finance team at Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co has advised Ecotricity on the refinancing of a portfolio of 19 operational wind and solar assets worth £70 million. The investment from Aviva Annuity UK Limited replaces financing from two of Ecotricity's long-standing finance providers.

Norton Rose Fulbright has advised motorways concession company Autostrada Brescia Verona Vicenza Padua (“ABP”) on its capital markets debut with a €600 million (US$636 million) secured senior notes issuance (“the Notes”). This is the first public transaction under new Italian project bond legislation. The Notes, due in March 2020, will pay a 2.375 per cent coupon and have an investment grade rating of BBB- from Standard & Poor's and BB+ from Fitch.

The Municipal Division of West Bromwich-based Ovivo UK Ltd has been bought by its management team in a deal which has been supported by Shawbrook Business Credit and law firm Irwin Mitchell.
 
The new business, which employs around 70 staff and has a turnover of £13m, is now known as Jacopa Limited. It is a leading player in the UK and Ireland wastewater sector and specialises in the provision of capital equipment and after-market parts and services.
 

DLA Piper has advised KAEFER Isoliertechnik GmbH & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft on a syndicated senior financing package, valued at €500 million - one of the largest corporate financing transactions carried out in Germany so far this year.

The package was arranged by a banking syndicate comprised of Deutsche Bank AG, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft and HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG, alongside a mezzanine financing package by two mezzanine lenders.

Clifford Chance has advised Italian company Enel Green Power SpA and its South African subsidiary on the financing of the Gibson Bay wind farm in South Africa by KfW IPEX-Bank in a total volume of 2.1 billion South African Rand (around EUR 160 million).

A part of the financing is secured by an export credit guarantee (Hermes guarantee) by the Federal Republic of Germany.

Clifford Chance has advised Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and German development bank KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH in relation to the debt financing of the procurement of a new fleet of passenger rolling stock for the Scotrail Franchise.

The financing will support the acquisition of 70 electric multiple units (46 three-car trains and 24 four-car trains), which will operate on the Edinburgh – Glasgow via Falkirk route as well as on suburban services from both cities to Stirling, Alloa and Dunblane, renewing the rolling stock on those routes.

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has advised the Amber Consortium on the closing of the third of five privately financed batches of schools pursuant to the Aggregator vehicle platform. The £100 million deal is part of the Priority School Building Programme’s (PSPB) “Aggregator”  platform using the Government’s PF2 funding model.

Ashurst has advised the Education Funding Agency (EFA), an executive agency of the Department for Education (DfE), on the £111 million financing of the North West Batch of the U.K. Government's Priority School Building Programme (PSBP), which reached financial close on 25 March 2015.

Linklaters LLP has advised Investec Bank plc, Cooperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank B.A. and EKF (the Danish Export Credit Agency) on the limited recourse financing of a waste-wood fired biomass power plant, located at the Port of Tilbury, Essex.

The sponsors are Aalborg Energie Technik a/s, ESBII UK Limited and UK Green Investment Bank plc. The agreement marks ESB’s first investment in the UK’s waste and biomass sector.