Ashurst has advised BTMU, Helaba, Mizuho and EIB as funders to the SITA-led consortium on the Cornwall rnwall integrated waste management PFI project which achieved financial close on 21 March 2013.
The 30 year PFI contract is to manage the treatment and disposal of all of Cornwall Council's household waste and recycling. The contract involves the design, build, finance and operation of an energy-from-waste facility in St Dennis with a capacity of up to 240,000 tonnes per year.
The project, which originally reached financial close in 2006, suffered delays due to planning consent refusal. This led to a chain of appeals and counter-proposals and finally concluded with the Court of Appeal upholding the Secretary of State and SITA's planning appeal on 29 March 2012.
The commercial banks and EIB jointly provided £182 million of senior debt to the project, in addition to a £21 million equity bridge facility and a separate equity bridge loan provided by one of the shareholders.
The Ashurst team was led by ETI partner Jan Sanders and counsel Nikhil Markanday. Paddy Boyle acted as special counsel to EIB.
Commenting on the project, Nikhil Markanday said:
"We are delighted to have played our part in getting this project over the line. This project will play a key role in transforming the way waste is managed in Cornwall through the investment made in new recycling facilities, the upgrading of landfills and the new energy recovery facility. The project has not been without setbacks and the project parties and their advisers have worked tirelessly for a number of years to ensure this project happened."
The wider Ashurst team included counsel Ian Fairclough, associates Liudmila D'Cruz and Adriana Badescu, Isabel Powles, junior associates Lindsey Bouchara and Robin Watson and trainees Roger Green, Adam Smart and Fiona Tsung. Senior associate Laura Scott advised on property aspects of the deal and tax advice was provided by associate Preena Ghandi. Counsel Gordon Stewart and Arunima Misra provided advice on agency matters and partner Isabelle Lentz and senior associate Françoise Haralamb advised on corporate mattes related to the Luxembourg power purchase guarantor.
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