Ashurst has advised Assured Guaranty, as monoline wrapper, and Lloyds, as bond lead manager, on the long-awaited £83 million bond financed Brunswick social housing PFI project. The project sees an Equitix-led consortium contracting with Manchester City Council for the regeneration of the Brunswick estate which will, when complete, provide around 1,350 homes. Galliford Try and Mears are providing the construction and refurbishment works required by the project and Contour is providing housing management services on behalf of the Council. The contract term is 25 years.

Allen & Overy advised Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) and a syndicate of commercial banks (The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, National Bank of Kuwait, Standard Chartered Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation) on the USD1.43 billion debt financing of the Az Zour North IWPP, the first independent water and power project in Kuwait.

Ashurst advised the sponsors, Aeolus Kenya, on the successful financial close of the development and financing of the 60MW (US$150 million) Kinangop Wind Farm in Kenya. The plant will provide electricity to 150,000 Kenyan households and will be the largest wind power generation project to be built in sub-Saharan Africa to date outside of South Africa.

The project is underwritten by CfC Stanbic Bank who are also the lead arranger. The Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries and Macquarie's African Infrastructure Investment Fund will provide the equity.

Norton Rose Fulbright has advised lenders Deutsche Bank, Unicredit Bank Austria, Zagrebacka Banka, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) on the financing of a €331 million project to expand and operate Zagreb Airport in Croatia.

Clifford Chance has advised Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) as the largest single provider of project finance debt to the Az-Zour North 1 power and water project, the first such project to be implemented under Kuwait's new Public Private Partnership (PPP) Laws.

Norton Rose Fulbright has advised international projects and export finance bank KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH on the financing of two onshore wind farms owned and operated by RES.

The financing takes the form of 15-year term loans to two RES project companies, funding the Tallentire Hill Wind Farm, a 12MW, 6 turbine wind farm in Cumbria, England, and Meikle Carewe Wind Farm, a 10.2MW, 12 turbine wind farm in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Herbert Smith Freehills has been involved in setting up the financing aimed at the design, construction, and exploitation of the Brignoles biomass power plant being developed by the Altawest/Inova group and operated by Inova Var Biomasse, with support from the Caisse des dépôts et consignations.

Pursuant to an authorisation from the CRE (energy regulatory body), Inova has been authorised to operate a 21.5MWc electric energy production plant using forest biomass.

Dentons advised the Department of Energy and Climate Change on its funding of a FEED Contract which Energy and Climate Change Secretary Edward Davey announced today is to be awarded to the White Rose CCS project, based at the site of the Drax power station.

DLA Piper advised BTG Pactual as arranger and placement agent of a $132.8 million project bond offering by Planta de Reserva Fría de Generación de Eten S.A., a Peru-based power generation company, to finance a 20-year concession to build, develop, operate and maintain a new thermal cold reserve power plant, transmission line and related infrastructure in the Reque district in the province of Chiclayo, Peru. The transaction closed on December 5.

Mayer Brown has advised global industrial company, the Klesch Group, on the €450m refinancing of the Heide Refinery in Germany by Barclays, using an innovative structured finance arrangement. This follows the Klesch Group's acquisition of the refinery from Shell in 2010, on which Mayer Brown also advised.
The 136-hectare site has a capacity to process nearly 4.5million tonnes of crude oil per year, supplying road fuels, aviation fuel, heating oil and chemicals, for the manufacturing of plastics, to Northern Germany.