Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised a group of international lenders on a two-tranche long term debt refinancing of the 50 percent interest in Macarthur Wind Farm in Victoria, Australia, managed by HRL Morrison & Co.

The lender group was a club comprising BNP Paribas, ING Bank (Australia) Limited, Mizuho Bank, Ltd and MUFG Bank, Ltd, with MUFG Bank, Ltd underwriting a long term samurai loan as part of the refinancing.

"This refinancing capitalised on strong support from financiers, particularly in international debt markets for high quality, well-structured renewable energy projects that have solid fundamentals and quality sponsors," said White & Case partner Joel Rennie, who led the Firm's deal team. "This project was ideally suited to a long term debt structure being implemented given its long term AGL Energy offtake and contractual wrap, and follows a trend of similarly backed projects moving to this type of capital structure given the liquidity that is currently available."

The Macarthur Wind Farm, which is located east of Macarthur in south west Victoria, has 140 turbines and its 420MW has the potential to power up to 154,000 Australian homes a year. The project became fully operational in January of 2013 and cost approximately A$1 billion to complete. The wind farm is operated by energy retailer AGL Energy.

The White & Case team in Australia which advised on the transaction was led by partner Joel Rennie with support from associates Emanuel Blum and Lachlan Barth.