International legal practice Norton Rose has advised the UK Green Investment Bank, Barclays Bank, BayernLB and SMBC as lenders to the Wakefield waste Private Finance Initiative (PFI), a municipal waste facility located in South Kirkby.
The lenders will provide banking facilities of over £100 million to project sponsor Shanks Group for the project, which will be capable of treating up to 230,000 tonnes of waste annually. The waste will be provided by the Council of the City of Wakefield.
This is the first time the Green Investment Bank has financed a project in the waste sector. It is also one of the Green Investment Bank’s first major investments to reach financial close, following its role in the financing of PGGM and Ampere Equity Fund’s interest in Walney offshore wind farms, which Norton Rose also advised on.
Mark Berry, partner, Norton Rose, commented:
“We are pleased to have advised the lenders on this project, which represents the UK Green Investment Bank’s first investment in the waste sector.”
“The number of commercial banks active in the current market has diminished considerably since the global financial crisis. It is encouraging that there is a strong appetite amongst those banks still active in the waste sector. This could bode well for the merchant sector which has yet to gain real traction with project financing solutions.”
Mark Berry led the team; assisted by partner and head of infrastructure, mining and commodities Martin McCann. Of counsels Jo Patrick and Oliver Carruthers, senior associate Matthew Hardwick and associates Tom Swarbrick and Zhiping Lin also advised, together with real estate partner Wasim Khan, planning partner Nigel Hewitson and environment partner Caroline May and senior associate Lucy Bruce Jones and associate Alex Common. Partner Jon Ellis and associate Leo Thorn Gent also assisted.
Financial close was reached on 11 January 2013 and the project follows Norton Rose’s role advising on the successful financial close of the Essex and the Norfolk waste PFIs in 2012.
