CEMEX, a global building materials company, has successfully completed the financing of Ventika, a project comprising the construction of two 126 MW wind farms each, for a total nominal capacity of 252 MW to be located in General Bravo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.
The investment for the project is approximately US$650 million, of which 75% correspond to debt and 25% to equity. The debt financiers are the North American Development Bank, Banobras, Nafin, Bancomext and Santander. The equity partners are Fisterra Energy, a company majority owned by funds managed by Blackstone, CEMEX and private investors.
CEMEX developed the project, providing its industry-leading technical expertise and skills in the clean energy industry. In addition, CEMEX will supervise the construction process and, once operational, will manage the wind farms without exercising control and owning a minority stake of 5% of the equity, therefore, the project will not be consolidated into CEMEX’s balance sheet and the project´s debt will have no recourse to CEMEX.
These wind farms will supply renewable energy to facilities belonging to FEMSA, DEACERO, Tecnológico de Monterrey and CEMEX, under the self-supply scheme approved by the Mexican Energy Regulatory Commission. In addition, more off-takers could be brought in the near future. Construction will begin in the 2nd quarter of 2014 and commercial operation is expected by the 2nd quarter of 2016.
“We are very pleased to close this important project as we have leveraged the use of our knowledge to continue our industry-leading expertise in the use of clean energy and alternative fuels,” said Luis Farías, CEMEX Vice-president of Energy and Sustainability. “We will continue to look for other potential opportunities in the sector.”
Acciona Energía was selected as the Engineering, Procurement, and Constructor (EPC) as well as the Operation & Maintenance (O&M) contractor. All required permits and contracts with authorities to build, operate and commercialize the wind farms have been obtained. Evercore was financial advisor for CEMEX, Santander was the leading banking agent and Banamex acted as trustee.