Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”), has advised Banca Nazionale del Lavoro S.p.A. (“BNL S.p.A.”) on the review of the original €23.8 million project finance facility agreement and the related financial documentation for Difesa Wind S.r.l.. The facility financed the construction, development, management and maintenance of a 16 MW wind farm in the Apulia Region of Southern Italy.

Most notably, WFW advised on the alteration of the contractual arrangements from a non-recourse project finance to a corporate recourse-style transaction.

BNL S.p.A. is an Italian bank than became a subsidiary of BNP Paribas in 2006.

The aforementioned deal follows the recent transfer of loans and ancillary rights from Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. and MPS Capital Services S.p.A. to BNL S.p.A., which reflects a current trend in the market that allows the banks that originally financed a deal to transfer their rights and credits to another lender in order to consent to the borrower revising the original financial terms to align with the current market conditions.

The WFW Italy team was led by finance partner Pierpaolo Mastromarini. He was assisted by associates Michele Arruzzolo for project finance aspects, Ginevra Biadico for administrative law aspects and Elisa Chiaro who advised on corporate law.