Manulife arranges $117 million in financing for Ontario wind farm
Manulife Financial announced the completion of a $117 million financing with International Power Canada (IPC) for the construction and long term operation of a 48.6 megawatt (MW) wind farm in south-western Ontario.
Manulife formed and led a syndicate of Canadian life insurance companies to provide a total $117 million in construction and term loans for a term of approximately 21-years term to support the Pointe-Aux-Roches Wind Power Project. Manulife is the arranger and agent with an investment of $60 million.
The 48.6 MW Pointe-Aux-Roches Wind Power Project consists of a twenty-seven 1.8 MW wind turbines located in the Town of Lakeshore, on the south shore of Lake St. Clair in south-western Ontario, approximately 35 km east of Windsor, Ontario. The Project has received required environmental permits and approvals and construction of the project is expected to be completed in 2011.
International Power Canada, Inc. (formerly AIM PowerGen Corporation) is a wholly owned subsidiary of International Power plc, a publicly traded UK based power generation company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, IPC is one of Canada’s largest independent wind power developers with a significant pipeline of potential wind and solar projects at various stages of development throughout Canada. To date, they have completed construction of 178 MW of wind power projects in Ontario.
This wind farm financing is one of six that Manulife expects to close in 2010 in North America. The company anticipates following up on this success by completing similar renewable power project financings in 2011. Manulife is a leading arranger and provider of debt financing for renewable energy projects in Canada. In the past five years, it has arranged $1.8 billion and provided $840 million in financing for 13 projects in Canada.
Electricity generated by the Point-Aux-Roches Wind Power Project will be sold to Ontario Power Authority under a Feed-in-Tariff Contract (FIT Contract).
