Project Finance

Why choose Shepherd and Wedderburn for Project Finance?

Our team has significant experience advising on project finance deals in the energy and infrastructure sectors, with one of our banking partners having specialised in this area for more than 20 years.

In the infrastructure market, we have worked with this type of financing across all of the UK delivery models (including PPP/PFI, NPD and Hub) in sectors such as health, education, transport, blue light, street lighting and defence.

In the energy sector, we have been involved in a variety of project finance deals for onshore wind, offshore wind, tidal, hydro and waste to energy projects.

This is in addition to our extensive experience advising on traditional energy financing, such as oil and gas reserve-based lending facilities, and innovative financing structures such as the Green Loan (being the first loan product which we developed with Green Investment Bank to help accelerate the advancement of low carbon projects for local authorities across the UK).

We advise a wide variety of clients including the public sector, sponsors, investors and lenders, both commercial banks and state-owned banks.

Moray Offshore Windfarm (East) Limited

Acted for Moray Offshore Windfarm (East) Ltd in relation to the £2.6 billion project financing of the offshore wind project, providing Scots Law banking input as well as dealing with the property and consenting aspects of the due diligence process.

AoE Windfarm Ltd

Acted for AOE Windfarm Ltd (AOE) and NTR Green Energy Holdings Ltd (the ultimate shareholder) in relation to the refinancing of an operational 11.5MW onshore wind farm located approximately 2kms from the village of Eaglesham, East Renfrewshire.

Lenders on portfolio financing package

The team advised a syndicate of lenders in relation to the portfolio financing package of £680 million provided to Ventient Energy (which is owned by JP Morgan Asset Management). Ventient is the UK’s third largest onshore wind farm owner-operator.

Scottish Enterprise

Acted as sole adviser to Scottish Enterprise (through its Renewable Energy Investment Fund) in providing both equity and project finance senior debt funding as part of a wider £50 million investment to build the first phase of the world’s largest tidal energy array in the Pentland Firth.

NHS Dumfries

Acted for NHS Dumfries and Galloway in connection with the £270 million project financing of the new Dumfries District General Hospital NPD project, to replace Dumfries Royal Infirmary.

Amber Green SPRUCE 2 LLP

Acted for Amber Green SPRUCE 2 LLP in providing an £11 million loan facility to the University of St. Andrews to part-finance the cost of construction of a £25 million renewable energy centre in Fife, including a biomass plant.

Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (Nord LB)

Acted for Nord LB in connection with the £56 million project financing of the Inverurie Community Campus Project, which comprises a secondary school, special school facility, swimming pool, sports facilities and community café. This is just one of a number of Hub projects in relation to which the team has advised Nord LB in recent years.

Bank of Scotland plc and Her Majesty’s Treasury

Acted on behalf of Bank of Scotland plc and Her Majesty’s Treasury in relation to new revolving loan facilities of up to £86 million to Countesswells Development Ltd (a subsidiary of the Stewart Milne Group Ltd). The financing will be used to fund the development of a major infrastructure and housing project, comprising 3,000 units, with a capital value of £800 million, just outside Aberdeen. This is the first deal of its kind in Scotland.

Green Investment Bank (now Green Investment Group)

Acted for the Green Investment Bank (GIB) in developing and deploying the Green Loan in projects in both Scotland and England (the Green Loan is a spend to save product that has been developed by the bank with Shepherd and Wedderburn drafting the documentation for roll-out across the UK. This was a new product from GIB offering UK local authorities a low, fixed rate loan over a period of up to 20 years and is based on the 'spend-to-save' model, whereby the loan is repaid from the savings local authorities make from implementing energy efficient solutions across their estate).