London-Dentons has advised Canadian Solar, the Toronto-based global energy provider and one of the world's largest solar power companies, on its £36.4 million refinancing of four UK solar power plants with a combined capacity of 40.2 MW.  BayernLB is the sole lender and the refinancing takes out short term debt put in place by Investec last year.

The refinancing agreement is non-recourse project finance with a term of 17 years.  The transaction follows six months of increased activity by Canadian Solar in the UK market which has brought its operational capacity in the country to over 100MW.

The Dentons team advising on the refinancing was led by Charles July, and included a team of Lucille De Silva, John Woolley, Tom Guilfoyle, Daniel Saville and Andrew Meaden.

Commenting on the transaction, Charles July said, "We are delighted to have advised Canadian Solar on this project financing facility.  The company has had a transformative few months as they continue to shore up their solar facilities in the UK and globally, and this refinancing demonstrates the confidence that major financial institutions have in their global project business.  Canadian Solar is a world leader in the solar industry, and we look forward to working with them on future deals."

Over the last 12 months, Dentons has advised Canadian Solar on the acquisition and financing of 13 separate ground-mounted solar projects in the UK.  The Firm has provided advice on SPAs, full due diligence, risk analysis, EPC, O&M, PPAs, and the security packages for each project, including the terms of parent company guarantees, performance bonds, warranty bonds and direct agreements.

Dentons' Global Energy practice is the world's largest; it provides a full commercial, corporate and dispute resolution service to private and public sector clients across upstream and downstream oil & gas, LNG, nuclear (whole fuel cycle), renewables and unconventional energy, conventional generation, transmission and distribution, retail electricity and natural gas supply, pipeline and maritime transportation, oil and gas and energy trading, energy market reform and privatizations and major project procurements, financings and capital raisings."