Deal represents largest ever purely-Philippine Peso project financing; first power generation facility in the Philippines to utilize supercritical boiler technology.

Latham & Watkins represented the borrower, San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. (a joint venture among Meralco PowerGen Corporation and New Growth B.V., an affiliate of The Electricity Generating Plc (Egco) of Thailand), in the project financing of a 500 MW supercritical coal-fired power plant expansion project located in Mauban, Quezon Province, the Philippines.

The San Buenaventura project financing is a 15-year Php 42 billion term loan, the largest ever purely-Philippine Peso project financing. The term loan facility is being provided by a consortium of five local Philippine banks.

The San Buenaventura project will be the first power generation facility in the Philippines to utilize supercritical boiler technology. Compared to subcritical power plants, supercritical coal-fired power plants operate at increasingly higher temperatures and pressures achieving higher efficiencies and significant CO2 reductions.

The Latham & Watkins team was led by Tokyo partner Michael Yoshii, Washington, D.C. partner John Sachs and Tokyo associate Richard Fleming.

Latham has more than 20 years’ experience advising project Sponsors and Developers in the Philippines. The San Buenaventura project marks the latest in a long line of Philippine power projects on which Latham has advised. Most recently before San Buenaventura, Latham acted as international project counsel on the Pagbilao 3 expansion project. Currently, Latham is advising Sponsors in connection with a number of coal, wind and hydro power projects, which are expected to bring over 3,500 MW of additional capacity to the Philippines. Latham also advises on other infrastructure projects and corporate-level financings in the Philippines.