Osborne Clarke advises Green Frog Power on its next leap forward with £100M debt financing

International legal practice Osborne Clarke advised Green Frog Power on the £100M development and project financing of its existing 231MW and additional 180MW of flexible gas-fired power generating capacity in the UK.

The financing was provided by an initial club of banks comprising Lloyds, HSBC and NIBC and will allow for further additional capacity of up to 110MW.

Green Frog Power is a leading provider of standby generation capacity in the UK. Its 115 employees oversee all aspects of its 33 sites from development through to construction and operation. The Green Frog Power group is accredited to undertake gas and grid connections as well as running a seven-day trading desk. Its power portfolio of 780 megawatts is enough to power more than a million households and the group is a long-standing client of Osborne Clarke.

Green Frog Power has now successfully closed on loans totalling more than £225M over the past seven years, together with equity of £80M with its investment partner, InfraRed Capital.

Director of Green Frog Power, Jeremy Taylor said: ‘We engaged our long-term legal partners, Andy Normington and his team at Osborne Clarke, to handle our debt raising. As usual, we were very impressed by their professionalism and precision throughout the long days of the project. At least as important was the commercial wisdom and judgement they offered, which were essential to closing the deal.’

A team of Osborne Clarke project finance and energy specialists acted on this latest transaction, led by Partner Andy Normington and Senior Associate Alex Underwood. In addition, Senior Associate Cameron Houston and Associates David Smith and Jasdeep Puri advised on the finance documents, with Senior Associates Amy Stray and Simon Budge advising on the operational framework agreements, construction and development documents.

Osborne Clarke has an established and well-respected position as one of the leading law firms advising on renewable energy projects and transactions. For over 20 years, it has helped clients to seize new opportunities and meet the challenges of making energy generation clean, affordable and secure. The combination of the team’s experience and understanding of the energy sector means they are regularly called upon to support businesses on all aspects of their commercial, regulatory, corporate, finance and construction legal needs.

Green Frog Power were also advised by Rothschild (led by Chris Arnold) as financial adviser, EY as tax adviser and WSP as technical adviser. DLA Piper (led by Laura Gordon) acted as Lenders' legal counsel.