Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP has advised Lotte Chemical Corporation (“Lotte”) on the financing of the petrochemical plant project in Lake Charles, Louisiana, composed of an ethane cracker plant (“EC Plant”) with an ethylene production capacity of approximately 1,000 KTA and an ethylene glycol (“EG”) plant with a mono-ethylene glycol (“MEG”) production capacity of approximately 700 KTA. The EC Plant is being developed by Lotte as a joint venture with Axiall Corporation (which was recently acquired by Westlake Chemical Corporation).
The debt financing amount is approximately US$1.6 billion, provided by The Export-Import Bank of Korea (“KEXIM”) and commercial banks (comprising Crédit Agricole, ING Bank, Mizuho Bank, SMBC, BBVA, HSBC Bank, BTMU and NongHyup Bank), with certain portions of the debt being guaranteed by KEXIM and covered by the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (“K-sure”). The rest of the $3.1 billion project cost is being funded by equity.
The Milbank deal team was led by partner Young Joon Kim and was coordinated principally by associates Brian Youn and Anthony Scott, with partner James Murray playing the coordinating role with certain other aspects of the Lotte investment. Partner Roland Hlawaty and associates Nikkisha Smith and Justen Fleming provided advice on corporate matters for Lotte’s operating subsidiary Lotte Chemical USA Corporation. Partner Dara Panahy and associates Bijan Ganji and Lafayette Greenfield provided advice on certain US regulatory issues. Partner Matthew Ahrens provided advice on environmental law issues. Partner Andrew Walker and associate Jules Mugema provided advice on tax issues. Partner James Warbey and associate Georgina Wolf provided advice on EU law issues.
