Covington Recognized with IJGlobal 2018 Awards
April 5, 2019
LONDON—Two Covington transactions were recognized with the IJGlobal 2018 Awards for African Refinancing Deal of the Year and for Middle East & North Africa Power Deal of the Year. The IJGlobal Awards celebrate the top transactions that closed over the past calendar year across the international infrastructure and energy sectors, while recognizing the organizations that played central roles in the deals.
The African Refinancing Deal of the Year was awarded to the US$400m refinancing of Uganda’s first independent power project, the 250 MW Bujagali hydroelectric power project on the river Nile. The refinancing is provided by development finance institutions: IFC, African Development Bank, Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), France’s Proparco, Germany’s DEG, United Kingdom’s CDC, and commercial banks: ABSA and Nedbank. The refinancing package will extend the tenor of the bulk of the senior and subordinated loans originally provided in 2007, making it possible to lower the tariff on electricity produced by the hydropower plant. The Covington team, led by partner Robin Mizrahi and special counsel Laure Berthelot, with assistance from of counsel Ursula Owczarkowski, associate Florence Cock and trainee solicitor John McNally, acted as counsel to the borrower, Bujagali Energy Limited (BEL), and sponsors Sithe Global and Industrial Promotion Services (Kenya) Ltd. on the refinancing.
For the Middle East & North Africa Power Deal of the Year, IJGlobal recognized the 300 MW Sakaka IPP photovoltaic solar project, the first ever utility scale renewable energy project under the National Renewable Energy Program of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Covington team, led by partner Agnieszka Klich, with assistance from associates Sharon Wing and Florence Cock, together with Saudi local counsel, Hatem Abbas Ghazzawi & Co, acted as borrower’s counsel, advising the borrower on the successful negotiation and execution of the financing and project documents.
In addition to the two Deal of the Year recognitions, Covington was also shortlisted for Middle East and North Africa Legal Advisor of the Year.
Providing news and analysis focused on the budding financial, regulatory, and numerical trends that lie beneath recent developments, IJGlobal is a leading online database of infrastructure and project finance transactions and assets.
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