Los Angeles, March 22, 2005 – The Los Angeles office of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP served as counsel to the Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank AG (HVB) as administrative agent and security agent; and to WestLB AG (WestLB) and Calyon, who along with HVB were the lenders for a $71,576,001 million senior-term debt financing of two wind energy projects: the 80.1 MW Top of Iowa project located in Worth County, Iowa and the 80 MW White Deer project located in Carson County, Texas. Top Deer Wind Ventures, LLC, a special-purpose project company that is directly owned by EWO Wind II, LLC, Entergy Power Gas Operations Corporation and Shell WindEnergy Inc., is the borrower under the financing.
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. He was assisted by associates Edward V. Kayukov, John Ha and Lauren Hwangbo.
Top Deer Wind Ventures owns the interests in subsidiary entities that have entered into long-term power purchase contracts with Wisconsin Power & Light Company for the sale of electricity to be generated at the Top of Iowa project, consisting of 89 NEG Micon NM52/900 kW turbines. Top Deer also has a contract with Southwestern Public Service Company for the sale of electricity to be generated at the White Deer project, which consists of 80 Mitsubishi Power Systems MWT-1000 kW wind turbine generators. The Top of Iowa project has been in operation since November 2001 and the White Deer project has been in operation since June 2002.
Milbank’s Global Project Finance Group includes more than 90 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:
- Euromoney’s Project Finance Magazine, 2004
- Record Deals of the Year
- Legal Week, 2004
- International Firm of the Year
- The American Lawyer, 2003
- No. 1 U.S.-Based Project Finance Law Firm
- Euromoney’s IFLR Guide to World’s Leading Law Firms
- Most Recommended Project Finance Law Firm
- No. 1 Project Finance Legal Advisor for Latin America
- 12 Milbank attorneys named as world’s Leading Project Finance Lawyers
- Dealogic
- No. 1 – Top 10 Legal Advisers of Renewal Project Finance Deals, August 1, 2003 - July 31, 2004
- IFLR Asian Awards
- 2002 International Law Firm of the Year
- Infrastructure Journal, 2002
- No. 1 Global Legal Advisor
- No. 1 North American Legal Advisor
- No. 1 Latin America Legal Advisor
- No. 1 Power Legal Advisor
- No. 1 Telecoms Legal Advisor
- Telecom’s Firm of the Year
Milbank is a premier global law firm headquartered in New York, with offices in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, 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.