Milbank/LA Closes $60 Million Acquisition of Seawest by the AES Corporation
Milbank/LA Also Served as Counsel to SeaWest in Several Regulatory Matters
Los Angeles, April 12, 2005 - The Los Angeles office of the international law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP represented SeaWest Holdings, Inc., a leading U.S. developer and operator of wind farms, in its agreement to be acquired by The AES Corporation for $60 million in cash. Milbank/LA also served as counsel to SeaWest in several regulatory matters, and for the finalization of project documents for ongoing projects.
The transaction, which is expected to close in this year’s first quarter, involves several stages beginning with a $30 million secured development loan by AES to a SeaWest subsidiary for the purchase of wind turbines for the Texas-based, 120MW Buffalo Gap wind farm development. This will be followed by the purchase by AES of Buffalo Gap Holdings, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of SeaWest; and finally, by the sale of all outstanding capital stock of SeaWest Holdings, Inc., the parent holding company of SeaWest WindPower, Inc. and other subsidiaries.
Edwin F. Feo, co-chair of Milbank’s Global Project Finance Department and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee spearheaded the Milbank team, which included associates Tom Paschall, Pamela Neufeld, and Victoria Xu. Concurrent with the sale, Milbank project finance partner, Karen Wong, negotiated the turbine supply, warranty and service agreements with Vestas American Wind Technology, Inc. for the Buffalo Gap wind farm project.
Milbank’s Global Project Finance Group includes 19 partners and more than 80 lawyers actively involved in the financing of infrastructure projects in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. In the past several years, the group has closed more than 140 project financings, valued in excess of $85 billion, and in a range of industries, including electric power, water, mining and metals, petroleum and natural gas, petrochemicals, aerospace, environmental, telecommunications and satellites, timber and paper processing, pipelines, toll roads and airports. Peer recognition includes:
Milbank is a premier global law firm headquartered in New York, with offices in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Palo Alto, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Frankfurt. In addition to global project finance, Milbank is a recognized leader in corporate finance and financial services law, transportation finance and other major fields of legal practice.