December 2022 - Astris Finance Congratulates its Clients Cymi and Brookfield on the Successful Closing of two Transmission Lines in Brazil for an Aggregate Amount of c. BRL 1.7bn

December 2022 – Astris Finance is pleased to announce the successful financial close in connection with Dunas Transmissão de Energia S.A. (“Dunas”), a 408 km transmission line project located in the northeast of Brazil, and Pampa Transmissão de Energia S.A. (“Pampa”), also a transmission line project - 326 km long - located in the south of Brazil.

The financing package for Dunas totaled BRL 920m (c. USD 184m) and it is comprised of BNB and BNDES, which for the first time in the transmission line sector will share project collateral. Both sources funded their first disbursements in Q3 2022.

Pampa, on the other hand, obtained a total financing package of BRL 742m (c. USD 148m) from BNDES that provided financing through a combination of an innovative infrastructure debentures structure and a backstop facility.

Dunas is fully controlled by Cymi Construções e Participações S.A. (“Cymi”), a subsidiary of the French group Vinci S.A., while Pampa is owned both by Cymi and by Brasil Energia Fundo de Investimento em Participações Multiestratégia, a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management.

Astris acted as exclusive financial advisor in both projects, supporting the sponsors during the entire financing negotiation and structuring process, through first disbursement.

Astris has a long track record in the transmission sector in Brazil, where we have advised clients across M&A, bid stage, financing and refinancing transactions. In the last 5 years, Astris successfully structured and closed more than BRL 10 billion (c. USD 2 billion) in financings in the Brazilian transmission line sector alone.

September 2021 - Astris Finance advises APG and Celeo on the c. $1.2 B acquisition and financing of Colbún Transmisión in Chile.

September 2021 - Astris Finance congratulates its clients APG and Celeo on the strategic acquisition of Colbún Transmisión in Chile through their affiliate Alfa Desarollo. With this acquisition, APG and Celeo jointly have the third largest transmission portfolio in Chile by line length. The acquisition from Colbun SA was completed on September 30, 2021 for a price of US$1,172 M after the settlement of the acquisition financing on September 20, 2021.

Astris served as exclusive financial advisor to APG and Celeo during the competitive acquisition process which started in the fourth quarter of 2020 and culminated in the execution of a share purchase agreement with Colbun on March 30, 2021. Working closely with the legal and other advisors to APG and Celeo, Astris assisted in all aspects of the due diligence and negotiation of the acquisition as well as the financing process.

As part of the financing process, Astris worked to obtain investment grade shadow ratings for Alfa Desarollo as well as a fully committed bridge loan from JP Morgan which was ultimately not drawn. The financing was structured as a project bond in the amount of $1,098 M, rated BBB- by Standard & Poor’s and Baa3 by Moodys which was settled into escrow prior to the acquisition date. The bond which has a 30-year final maturity and a 24-year average life was more than four times oversubscribed at its peak. JP Morgan acted as Global Coordinator and Citibank, Santander and SMBC also served as Joint Bookrunners. The Joint Bookrunners also provided a letter of credit facility recourse to Alfa Desarollo which was structured by Astris as part of the acquisition financing package.

“Astris Finance is honored to have been selected to advise this strong sponsor group in such a competitive process. We are thrilled for APG and Celeo to close this landmark transaction in Chile under such attractive conditions,” commented Tobey Collins, Astris’ Head of Energy for the Americas. Angel Ortega, Celeo´s Chief Investment Officer, said “We are very pleased to expand our presence in Chile with this strategic acquisition and to close our third successful transaction with Astris Finance in Chile in the last five years.”

March 20 - Astris congratulates clients Cymi and Brookfield on the successful financial close in connection with three transmission lines in Brazil

March 2020 - Astris Finance is pleased to announce the successful closing of three financings in the transmission sector in Brazil totaling more than USD 1.2 bn, including the largest BNDES loan in the energy sector in Brazil in 2019.

All three projects are owned by Cymi (ACS group from Spain) and Quantum (a Brookfield Brazilian subsidiary). The largest project, Mantiqueira (1261 km), achieved its first disbursement of the USD 680m senior debt in December 2019 while Chimarrão (934 km) and Sertaneja (485 km) reached financial close in January and February 2020 respectively. Astris acted as exclusive financial advisor to the Sponsors from bid stage to first disbursement. The total debt raise across the three projects was in excess of USD 1.2 bn.

The projects consist of the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of a combined total 2,680km in transmission lines under 30-year concession contracts. The projects are located in the states of Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Piauí and Bahia and will play an important role in increasing interconnection within the Brazilian grid, as well as allowing new renewable sources to transmit energy to the load centers. The total investment amount of Mantiqueira, Chimarrão and Sertaneja combined is more than USD 1.6 billion.

Astris worked with the Sponsors’ team to design and implement a comprehensive financing strategy, looking at every potentially available source of long-term liquidity. Ultimately, BNDES was selected as the optimal financing strategy with a door-to-door maturity of 24 years.

The projects were awarded in auctions conducted in 2015 and 2016 and All relevant environmental licenses were obtained in 2019 after which the senior debt package for each project was rapidly executed by year end 2019.

November 2015 – Astris to Act as Financial Advisor in connection with the financial feasibility study of a 1800 MW hydropower plant project in Papua New Guinea

Astris has been retained by a leading Italian construction company to conduct the financial feasibility study of a greenfield 1800-MW hydroelectric power plant project in Papua New Guinea.