Weekly Closer: Western European energy leads the pack

Welcome to the Weekly Closer, a new section where we zoom in on project finance and M&A milestones reported this week by sister website IIassets.com.

Energy was a major theme this week but social infrastructure and waste & water projects made their own splash as well.

Energy  

With a $4.3 billion initial commitment, the Johan Sverdrup Infield Pipelines Project in Norway was by far the largest financial close reported this month.

The contract to lay a pipeline transporting oil from the offshore Sverdrup field located about 140 kilometres west of Stavenger was awarded on 3 February to Technip Norway. Ocean Installer was appointed to carry out marine construction and installation. Lundhurst Petroleum secured its initial committed amount to finance the works with advisement from Ashurst. The $4.3 billion facility replaces a $4 billion facility which was due to reduce in availability starting in June and reach maturation in 2019. The deal allows up to $700 million in additional commits.

Cerberus Capital Management's 100 percent acquisition of Renovalia Energy, for just over $1 billion, was the other mega-deal reported this week. Renovalia holds a portfolio of 1,700 megawatts in renewable power generation projects spread across seven countries in North America and Europe. Watson Farley Williams advised. 

Three deals reported without financial details this week in the energy space include the Airies and Sorbie wind farm projects and the Tobolsk CHP Plant acquisition. 

Social

The social infrastructure space was led by the $328 million Affinity Flying Training Financing PPP Project, which involves the provision of aircraft and associated infrastructure for UK military educational purposes and maintenance services for 15 years.

The Uliving consortium reached close with the University of Gloucestershire on an $81 million campus housing project which calls on the private partner to add 577 new beds and renovate 214 existing rooms. It also involves building a gym, dining hall, faith room and a new student union office as well as over 1,000 square feet of office space for the administration. Uliving will operate and maintain the project assets for 50 years.

Graham Construction and Engineering also won an education sector project, this one in Scotland. The $37.8 million Dalbeattie Learning Campus PPP Project calls for the development of a nursery playroom, primary and secondary classrooms, flexible teaching spaces, shared dining and assembly space, a primary hall, specialist teaching areas, sport and fitness facilities and an external space for learning and play. 

Waste & Water

A major water infrastructure maintenance and upgrade was cleared to kick off this week in Canada by way of the $142.7 million Saint John Safe Clean Drinking Water PPP Project. The contract calls on a consortium of developers to construct a new 100 million litre-per-day drinking water treatment plant, three new 11 million litre storage reservoirs, and 15 other water transmission system improvements. The Canadian government will provide a CAD$57.3 million non-repayable P3 Canada Fund contribution. The Province of New Brunswick is providing a matching sum through the Regional Development Corporation.  

A much smaller $17.6 million contract to upgrade a sewage treatment plant in Stockholm was closed on by the Nordic Investment Bank and Swedish wastewater service provider Kappalaforbundet. The project will add a high rate clarification process for the overflow on site of the existing Kappala sewage processing facility in northern Stockholm as well as a new digester to increase biogas production capacity.