Deal of the month
WHAT'S NewS Issue 4 April 1996
short news
15
Roger Jansen
The deal: 1TL 731.8 billion
project finance transaction.
The cliënt: Rosen Rosignano
Energia SpA.
The players: Eric van de Peer
(Rabobank Antwerp); Dick
Vaarties and Roger Jansen
(project finance) and Jos Pak
(legal department) Utrecht;
Roland van Limburg Stirum,
Mauro Bombacigno and
Stefano Pallotti (Rabo Italia).
In 1988, the ltalian
government launched a new
energy strategy, the National
Energy Plan, which is designed
to achieve a number of goals.
FThe first is to reduce Italy's
dependence on imported
energy. But other aims include
establishing a coherent
approach to environmental
policy, developing electricity
production using renewable
Atlanta is open and New York
celebrates 15 years of
operations,though celebration
is probably misleading. New
York Rabobankers kept a low
profile so as not to distract
from the Atlanta event where
,bank chairman Herman Wijffels
'opened operations by
presenting two full scholar-
ships to Georgia State
University.
Dick Vaarties
resources or cogeneration and
improving the country's overall
energy efficiency.
The Rosen Rosignano project
finance deal is the first major
independent power project in
Italy which meets all these
requirements. The new
cogeneration plant is to be
built in Tuscany for Rosen,
which is co-owned by two
major Belgian corporates,
Tractebel and Solvay, and
Italy's Sviluppo di Nuove
Iniziative, at a total cost of ITL
731.8 billion. 'Although we
book the deal here in Milan,'
says Roland van Limburg
Stirum, 'all honour should
really go to our project finance
people in Utrecht and to Eric
in Antwerp'.
'It took a lot efforts to get
involved in this financing. As,
with almost all first projects in
a certain sector in a specific
country, the project attracted
an overwhelming attention
within the international
banking community', Eric van
de Peer says: 'The main reason
why Rabobank was able to
enter this financing is that we
decided together with the
project finance team in Utrecht
to market both on sponsors
Solvay and Tractebel, as the
bankarrangers Deutsche Bank
and Natwest at a very early
stage.' Dick Vaarties is quick
to add: 'The succes of this
financing is proved by the fact
that banks like us were being
downscaled in the syndication
for an intended level of ITL 70
billion to only ITL 25 billion.'
Solvay and Tractebel are major
clients in Belgium and those
relationships provided the
bank's entry into this new
growth market in Italy.
'Cogeneration plants are hot
here because of the National
Energy Plan,' confirms Mauro
Bombacigno.
'Italy has been heavily
dependent on imported energy,
especially electricity from
France. So there is currently a
strong move towards self-
sufficiency by generating more
suppliers for the still public
energy provider ENEL. The
Rosen transaction is only the
first in what promises to be a
long list of similar deals.'
Besides supplying energy for
ENEL, the Rosen plant will
also generate steam. 'Solvay
has a chemical plant in
Rosignano which requires
reliable supplies of steam for
processing,' says Roger Jansen.
This plant manufactures basic
components for health and
body care products and
pharmaceuticals. It also owns
the land on which the plant
will be constructed.' This deal,
which has a classic project-
finance structure, is a winner
in more ways than one. The
plant will use methane gas to
cogenerate both energy and the
steam Solvay needs. 'So it
really is low impact for the
environment', Jansen adds.
According to Vaarties, Rabo
Italia's involvement is 'Very
good for our image in this
sector. This is a very visible
deal. We were very pleased
that especially through
Tractebel we were brought in
the deal.
There are strong names in the
syndicate like Natwest,
Deutsche Bank, Mediocredito,
Indosuez, Paribas and
Generale Bank.
We are hoping that the way we
have handled the transaction
will also lead to more
cooperation with those banks
elsewhere.'
visitor's book
Ireland Jaap Slotema (international) April 30-May 3
Jakarta Hans van de Weerd sr. (Foreign offices Dept.) April 28-May 10
Utrecht Roland van Limburg Stirum (Milan) April 15
looking ahead")
April
14-17/04 Operations Managers Meeting in Utrecht
15/19/04 Private Banking Course London
21-23/04 Internal Auditors Meeting in Utrecht
Group Profile/Annual Report
Study 'F&A in Poland'
May
5-8/05 Treasury Managers Meeting
8-10/05 VIV-Latin America
9/05 China Seminar in Utrecht
20-24/05 FIS-conference (World Seed Organisation) in
Amsterdam
27-31/05 lAMA-conference in Cancun, Mexico
Study The World Seed Market'(revised edition)
