Global legal practice Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Partners Group on the successful closing of a US$250 million investment to develop a dedicated Japanese solar platform.

Partners Group is a global private markets investment management firm with over €30 billion in investment programmes under management in private equity, private debt, private real estate and private infrastructure.

The investment consortium, co-led by Partners Group and Equis Funds Group, included investors such as Babson Capital, LG Super and Qantas Superannuation and was established to fund the construction of utility-scale solar power plants across Japan. Japan Solar will partner with Nippon Renewable Energy KK which owns and will develop a pipeline of over 300MW of Japanese solar projects over the next two years. Nippon Renewable Energy KK has contracted four projects totalling 47.5MW which will commence construction imminently having completed financing and construction documentation. The transaction closed on 21 January 2014.

The Tokyo office, with support from Japanese counsel Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, advised on all aspects of the transaction. This included the Japanese feed-in tariff, which was introduced by the government to encourage investment in the sector and is expected to provide renewable energy producers with stable cash flows.

Chris Viner, partner in the Tokyo office of Norton Rose Fulbright, commented:

“The Tokyo office of Norton Rose Fulbright has been advising clients in the renewables sector since our office opened in 2008 and interest in the Japanese renewables sector is continuing to gain momentum with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s (METI) feed-in tariff programme providing the impetus for this growth.

“This project has been one of the largest independent solar generation projects in Japan and presented unique challenges for various international stakeholders. To facilitate prompt closing involving a number of jurisdictions, the Tokyo office involved relevant offices in the Asia-Pacific region.”

The team was led by Chris Viner, assisted by senior associate Katarina Svitekova and associates Andrew Clarke and Christina Jeong in Tokyo. Sidley Austin LLP advised Equis Funds Group.