The financing includes a 21-year construction and term loan, a bridge loan to the ITC Cash Grant from the US Department of Energy and some vendor financing.
The proceeds of this financing will be used to complete construction of the power project.
The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company (Manulife) and its US division John Hancock Financial Services (Hancock) led a group of institutional lenders, including the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (Sunlife), for an initial funding of $178.5m and a conditional commitment for a further $26m to be funded on or before 30 September 2011.
A $55m cash grant bridge was provided by Rabobank, $25m was drawn at financial close, and the remaining $30m L/C will be drawn down through the construction period on a pro rata basis with the institutional lenders.
The interest on the amounts drawn will be approximately 5.5% and the L/C fee on the undrawn portion will be 4% per annum.
The cash grant loan and L/C matures the earliest of the date upon which the cash grant is received and 90 days after the commercial operations date but no later than 31 July 2012.
The cash grant loan and L/C are secured by a first lien on the cash grant and a second lien on the Windstar project assets.
A further $15m of non interest bearing funding was obtained from a vendor secured by a second lien on the cash grant and payable from the proceeds of the cash grant.
