Watson Farley & Williams has advised Eolica Petralia S.r.l. (an SPV of the Falck Renewables group) on the €24 million refinancing of its existing facilities for its Petralia Sottana onshore wind farm in Sicily by Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna, Banca Popolare di Milano and UBI Banca Società Cooperativa per Azioni.

The matter involved specific structuring issues as a matter of Italian law, due of the fact that only one of the previous lenders (Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna) remained as lender, while the other previous lender assigned its participation to the new lenders (Banca Popolare di Milano and UBI Banca Società Cooperativa per Azioni).

The WFW team was led by Milan finance partner Francesco Dialti and London finance partner Mark Lawson, for English law aspects. Raffaele Villa, head of tax Italy, advised on the tax aspects of the transaction.

Legance was legal adviser to the lenders.