Press Release

Milbank at Forefront of U.S. Project Finance

U.S. Projects Team Ranked #1 by Chambers

NEW YORK, NY, May 31, 2005 – Setting the pace in U.S. project financings in 2004, the international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP closed 18 deals worth nearly $2 billion. In recognition of its leadership Milbank has been awarded the “2005 CHAMBERS AWARD FOR USA PROJECTS” by UK legal publisher Chambers and Partners. The annual awards are among the most prestigious in the legal industry and recognize the world’s leading lawyers and law firms by practice area and country/region. A global force in project finance, Milbank has also received a record eight “DEAL OF THE YEAR” awards from Euromoney’s Project Finance magazine and has been named “INTERNATIONAL FIRM OF THE YEAR” by Legal Week, a leading legal industry publication.

Commenting on the award, Eric Silverman, co-chair of Milbank’s global project finance group, stated, “The Chambers Award, together with the recognition from several other industry publications, highlights our continued ranking at the forefront of the dynamic U.S. energy and power markets and a wide range of other industry sectors. Under the leadership of Ed Feo, who co-chairs the project finance practice with me, we have also become a force in alternative/renewable energy and transportation and infrastructure.”

Among others, Milbank’s most innovative U.S. project financings closed in 2004 included the Chicago Skyway Privatization, the Brascan hydroelectric power project, and the Three Winds Holdings renewables portfolio, each of which was named a “Deal of the Year” by Euromoney’s Project Finance magazine:

• CHICAGO SKYWAY PRIVATIZATION: Milbank represented the Cintra-Macquarie consortium in the $1.82 billion, 99 year agreement to acquire the concession to “toll” and operate the 8 mile elevated Chicago Skyway toll road. This type of public-private partnership, although common in Europe and elsewhere, is relatively novel in the U.S. Awarded both Project Finance magazine’s NORTH AMERICA TRANSPORT DEAL OF THE YEAR” and overall “NORTH AMERICAN DEAL OF THE YEAR”. In recognition for his role in the Chicago Skyway Privatization, Milbank’s Ed Feo was named an American Lawyer magazine's “DEALMAKER OF THE YEAR” for 2004.
  
  

• BRASCAN HYDROELECTRIC: Milbank represented the lenders in a non-recourse $500 million bridge financing for Brascan Corporation of Canada to fund its $874 million purchase of power generating stations from Reliant Energy, Inc. The deal is notable in that it came to market without a single contract or parent guarantee. Awarded Project Finance magazine’s “NORTH AMERICA MERCHANT POWER DEAL OF THE YEAR”.
  
  

• THREE WINDS HOLDINGS: Milbank represented lenders in the landmark $123.5 million Three Winds project financing. The transaction financed 152 MW of wind farms developed by Shell Wind Energy. Awarded Project Finance magazine’s “NORTH AMERICA RENEWABLES” Deal of the Year.

In 2005 Milbank continues to set the pace in U.S. project financings; recent transactions include:

• Representing the lenders in the $278 million financing of the Cheyenne Plains gas pipeline project, the largest gas pipeline non-recourse financing in the United States in recent years.
  

• Representing the lenders in the landmark $822 million financing of Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG project, the largest LNG financing in the U.S. to date.
  

• Representing KGEN LLC in the $475 million refinancing of KGEN’s senior credit facility, which presented unique challenges including a tight transaction timetable and dealing with a number of counterparties and Duke Energy as the holder of seller refinancing.
  

• Renewable energy projects including the $108.5 million Sweetwater II wind project, the $76 million Top Deer project financing and the $66 million Kaeheawa Wind Power project in Hawaii.
  

• $295 million privately placed dividend deal for the Crockett Cogeneration power plant in California.  

About Milbank:
In 2004 Milbank’s Global Project Finance Department closed $21 billion of deals worldwide. Renowned for its leadership and experience, Milbank has pioneered some of the most innovative project financing techniques, and consistently ranks among the top law international law firms by industry trade publications such as Infrastructure Journal, Privatisation International, Project Finance International, The American Lawyer and Euromoney’s Project Finance Book of Lists. With more than 100 dedicated project finance attorneys in the firm’s offices worldwide, Milbank provides legal advice under both U.S. and English law. As the project finance marketplace has evolved, Milbank’s Global Project Finance attorneys have expanded the range of products and services by working in conjunction with attorneys from other practice areas to encompass restructuring, mergers & acquisitions, development and finance and regulation.

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a global law firm headquartered in New York, with offices in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Palo Alto, London, Frankfurt, Munich, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. Milbank is a recognized leader in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and corporate finance, project finance, acquisition finance and other major fields of legal practice. Milbank has English, German and U.S. law capabilities, and provides a full range of services to many of the world’s leading financial, industrial and commercial enterprises, as well as governments, institutions and individuals.