Sojitz Group lands $122m Peru solar project financing

The loan is designed to refinance existing debt.

Majes and Repartición are the wholly-owned Peruvian subsidiaries of Sojitz Arcus Investment, which belongs to the Sojitz Group, a Japanese global trading and investment group.

The solar plant of which the two companies are concessionaires is a 20MW facility in Arequipa, a project awarded in the first tender for the supply of energy with renewable resources to the national grid, carried out by Peru’s regulatory agency OSINERGMIN.

The obligations of Majes and Repartición under each loan are secured by a series of guarantees constituted on the assets of each project.

Peruvian law firm Hernández & Cía and Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt LLP in the US advised Majes Arcus and Repartición Arcus on the medium-term refinancing transaction.

The loan was granted to refinance the secured debt previously granted by United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), Société de Promotion et de Participation pour la Coopération Economique (PROPARCO) and Netherlands Financierings-Maatschappij VoorOntwikkelingslanden (FMO) for the development of the solar project and other corporate purposes.

HSBC acted as administrative agent and foreign collateral agent, while Scotiabank Peru acted as local collateral agent.

Hernández & Cía’s team was led by partner Brendan Oviedo Doyle, with senior associates Evelyn López and Julien Labory-Alicq, with associate Andrea Limón Bustamante.

Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt’s team in New York comprised partner Joseph Choi, senior counsel Vicenzo Paparo and Crayton Bell, and associate Dilawar Fazal.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation was advised in the US by Paul Hastings, with a team led by partners Robert Kartheiser and Elicia Ling, with of counsel Maria Leonor Tobia and foreign associate Sergio Rodriguez Mosquera.

The lender was advised in Peru by law firm Rodrigo, Elias & Medrano, and whose team was led by partners Fernando Molina and Nicolás Cornejo, with associate Maria Angélica Meneses.