Norton Rose Fulbright advises on two deals awarded Infrastructure Investor’s Deals of the Year

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised on two winning deals selected by Infrastructure Investor as Deals of the Year.

With just six deals honored annually, the awards celebrate excellence relevant to the flow of private capital into infrastructure projects around the world.

The North America Deal of the Year was awarded to the US$11 billion debt financing of the largest clean energy infrastructure project in US history, the SunZia Wind and Transmission Project. A 550-mile transmission line between New Mexico and Arizona with the capacity to transport 3,000 MW of electricity,  SunZia Transmission will deliver clean power generated by Pattern Energy’s 3,515 MW SunZia Wind facility, the largest wind project in the Western Hemisphere, being constructed across Torrance, Lincoln, and San Miguel Counties in New Mexico. After close to two decades of development work, CPP Investments-backed Pattern Energy closed the financing that included US$8.8 billion in construction and term facilities from 13 international banks, alongside a US$2.25 billion tax equity term loan. Norton Rose Fulbright represented the syndicate of lenders and our team was led by Todd Alexander, Christy Rivera and Mangesh Dhume.

The Middle East and Africa Deal of the Year was awarded to the world’s largest renewable energy-powered reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant, the Hassyan Independent Water Project (IWP) located in Dubai, with ACWA Power as lead developer alongside DEWA and EIG. The first IWP to be implemented in Dubai; the complex US$749 million financing structure involved two lead syndication banks, Standard Chartered Bank and MUFG, leading a total of 14 regional and international financial institutions, including a combination of conventional and Islamic financing, together with a US$75 million tranche provided by Saudi EXIM Bank, their first project financing in the UAE. Norton Rose Fulbright advised the lenders and our team was led by Paul Mansouri and Chris Down.

Infrastructure Investor covers the funds, deals and trends relevant to all forms of equity- and debt-related investment strategies. Now in its 16^th year, the awards are selected by senior, in-house editorialists and cover all geographies in categories such as investor of the year across asset classes including digital infrastructure and transport, equity fundraising of the year and fund manager of the year.

Congratulations to all those whose achievements in driving impactful change in the infrastructure sector have been honored in this year’s awards.