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Clifford Chance advises the lenders for the financing of the largest wind farm ever built in Africa

11 February 2013

Clifford Chance advises the lenders for the financing of the largest wind farm ever built in Africa

The International law firm Clifford Chance advised the mandated lead arrangers and the lenders on all the aspects of Nareva Holding and International Power-GDF Suez' project to build the Tarfaya wind farm (in the South of Morocco) with a capacity of 300 MW, from the bid phase in 2009 until the financial close in December 2012. The Clifford Chance team was composed of Mustapha Mourahib, Partner, Benjamin de Blegiers, Counsel, and Ouns Lemseffer, Associate. The project called upon a bank financing up to MAD 4 billion, provided by a lenders consortium composed of Attijariwafa Bank, Banque Centrale Populaire and Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur.

"After having successfully implemented its first 200 MW wind project in the framework of the new legislation liberalizing power generation from renewable energy, Nareva, in partnership with GDF SUEZ, will now start building the Tarfaya wind farm. These two projects establish Nareva as the national private operator with the ambition to develop energy projects that contribute to building the nation’s economy. We are very proud of this project and, together with our partner GDF SUEZ, we want to thank all the stakeholders involved in this prestigious project for their trust and their contribution to its achievement", declared Ahmed Nakkouch, Président Directeur Général of Nareva Holding.

The project had been awarded to Nareva Holding and International Power-GDF Suez further to the tender process launched by Office National de l'Electricité et de l'Eau Potable in February 2008. The wind farm is expected to be operational by end 2014, after almost 2 years of construction.

With a capacity of 300 MW, the Tarfaya wind farm will be, when operational, the largest wind farm ever built in Africa. The construction of this farm forms part of the Moroccan Integrated Wind Energy Project launched by the Kingdom of Morocco for a total investment estimated at MAD 31.5 billion.

Clifford Chance also advised the lenders in relation to the financing granted to Nareva for the launch of the 1st wind project with a total capacity of 200MW in the context of the framework set by law 13-09 which liberalised the production and commercialisation of electricity from renewable sources.