Cleary Gottlieb represented BlackRock Inc. (BlackRock) in the refinancing of a project finance facility used for the construction and development of BlackRock’s 130MW La Bufa (La Bufa) wind farm in Zacatecas, Mexico.
Cleary also advised BlackRock (then First Reserve) in the original project financing in 2015, which included a credit agreement and letter of credit facility.
The new financing consists of a $225 million private placement of La Bufa’s 5.77% notes due 2037 and a $20 million letter of credit facility. MUFG Securities Americas Inc. acted as placement agent in the notes offering and MUFG Bank LTD. acted as provider under the letter of credit facility. The notes and letter of credit facility are secured by all of the assets of the project. The refinancing transaction closed on May 24, 2019.
BlackRock is the world’s largest publicly traded investment management firm. As of December 31, 2018, BlackRock had approximately $6 trillion of assets under management. The power generated by La Bufa is sold, via a power purchase agreement, to Volkswagen de México to provide clean energy to Volkswagen’s Puebla plant, the largest automobile factory in Mexico.