Babcock & Brown Wind Partners has completed a €1.03 billion refinancing and releveraging of its global wind farm portfolio, aggregating project, asset and corporate level debt across various jurisdictions into a single corporate facility provided by four international banks.
The four banks that have underwritten the corporate facility are Banco Espirito Santo de Investimento, S.A., Millennium investment banking, Bank of Scotland (HBOS) and Dexia Credit Local.
“The refinancing and releveraging of BBW’s global wind farm portfolio represents an efficient approach to financing assets across 3 continents and 5 countries,” says Miles George, CEO of BBW. “This is a significant transaction as it represents the first global wind farm portfolio financing and demonstrates the credit strength of BBW’s portfolio. A key outcome of the refinancing is the ability for BBW to achieve a greater degree of capital efficiency and flexibility, as BBW has put in place a set of common terms across its entire debt portfolio. It thereby makes it much easier for BBW to resize the facility as acquisitions are completed on an ongoing basis.”
BBW currently owns and operates a global portfolio of wind farms across three continents, five countries and nine wind regions.