November.18.2013
Orrick Rambaud Martel is advising U.K. private equity firm Actis LLP in its $220 million purchase of three of AES Corp.’s assets in Cameroon. The investment gives Actis a 56 percent stake in Cameroon’s national integrated utility, Société Nationale d’Electricité ("SONEL"), and in two independent power plants, Kribi and Dibamba.
SONEL provides 933MW of generation and supplies electricity to over 800,000 customer connections throughout the country, while Kribi and Dibamba contribute a combined 300 MW towards Cameroon’s generation capacity. While Actis will manage SONEL directly, Globeleq, Actis’ wholly owned private power company, will manage and operate Kribi and Dibamba.
Under the deal, $180 million will be paid at closing while the remaining $40 million will be backed by a letter of credit and payable after 24 months. All three deals — pending government and lender approval — are expected to close in the first quarter of 2014.
The cross-border Orrick team advising on the transaction is led by energy and infrastructure partner Yves Lepage and includes energy and infrastructure partner Nicholas George, corporate partner Jinal Shah, energy and infrastructure of counsel Olivier Mélédo, corporate associate Alice Edwards and energy and infrastructure associate Tzvétomira Pacheva.
Orrick’s Africa Practice consists of a multidisciplinary team of lawyers who bring their exceptional legal skills and in-depth industry knowledge to transactions across Africa. They include corporate, finance and dispute resolution lawyers worldwide specialized in advising on complex projects in a number of sectors including mining, oil & gas, power and infrastructure for French and English speaking African countries.