Milbank Represents Marubeni in Purchase of 49 Percent Stake in Invenergy Thermal's Power Portfolio
NEW YORK, May 12, 2009 – Giving it an important foothold in the North American power sector, Japan's Marubeni Corporation ("Marubeni") has acquired 49 percent of Invenergy Thermal Financing LLC, which owns three natural-gas fired power plants (1,041 MW) in the United States. The international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, led by partners David J. Wolfson, Dan Bartfeld and Bill Bice, represented Marubeni in negotiating and structuring the acquisition, which furthers Marubeni's strategy for sustaining the growth of its power generation business. Upon completion of the transaction, Marubeni's worldwide generating capacity is 24,541 MW (gross) and 7,483 MW (net).
"This transaction is evidence of the continuing market for acquisitions of high-quality assets," stated Milbank's Wolfson. The power projects acquired by Marubeni all have long-term offtake contracts with utilities and investment-grade cooperatives.
"We anticipate that the US power market will continue to see acquisition activity for generating assets with contracted revenue streams," added Milbank's Bartfeld.
In addition to Messrs. Wolfson, Bartfeld and Bice, the Milbank team included Randy Cinco, Bruce Gardner, James Liles, Dan Michalchuk, Anders Moberg, Dara Panahy and Lewis Putman.
About the Transaction
Invenergy Thermal Financing LLC owns the Hardee Power Plant, a 370 MW combined-cycle/peaking plant in Florida; the Spindle Hill Power Plant, a 314 MW peaking plant in Colorado; and the Cannon Falls Power Plant, a 357 MW peaking plant in Minnesota. Invenergy Thermal LLC and its affiliates develop, acquire, own and operate large-scale power generation projects in the United States, Canada and parts of Europe.
About Milbank
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a pre-eminent global law firm that for more than 140 years has provided innovative legal solutions in many of the world’s largest, most complex, “first-ever” corporate transactions and litigation. Our transactional expertise includes capital markets, corporate finance, project finance, acquisition finance and other major fields of law practice. Milbank litigation teams resolve disputes involving mergers and acquisitions, proxy battles, financings and securities offerings, intellectual property, white collar crime and corporate restructurings, among others. Our clients range from prominent multinational financial, industrial and commercial enterprises to governments, institutions and individuals. The Firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, DC.