Singapore, November 13, 2008—Shearman & Sterling’s Project Development & Finance Group successfully signed and closed a US$544 million refinancing of the 1000 megawatt gas-fired Santa Rita power project in Batangas, Philippines on November 11. Shearman & Sterling advised the eight mandated lead arrangers (BTMU, Calyon, HVB Unicredit, ING, KfW, Maybank, SocGen and Standard Chartered) on the project financing and hedging aspects of the refinancing. The borrower is First Gas Power Corporation, which is 60% owned by First Philippines Holdings and 40% by British Gas.

Lawyers who worked on the transaction included partner Bill McCormack, counsel Sanja Udovicic, associates Jayne Mander, Joe Tong, Scott Bagget, Matt Blycha and Jenny Chao, and trainee Anna Fingerit, all in the Project Development & Finance Group in the Singapore office; with assistance from partner Constance Fratianni, of counsel Reade Ryan and legal assistant Christine Dionne (all from the New York Finance Group) on the New York law financing agreements, and from counsel Curtis Doty and associate Nani-I Chen (both from the New York Asset Management Goup) on the New York law hedging documentation.

The closing of this deal is significant given the continuing turmoil in the credit markets and the scarcity of successful financings in the market generally. The deal saw high levels of scrutiny from banks’ credit departments and significant extra work to address the queries and comments of credit committees. The deal was financed on a club basis, with the potential for an increase in the size of the facilities post closing if additional banks agree to join the syndicate as part of the post closing syndication, but no underwriting of any increased amount.

The firm’s Project Development & Finance team in Singapore has also recently signed the financing for the GHECO power project in Thailand (advising the mandated lead arrangers) and expects to close the Thi Vai port project in Vietnam (advising Port of Singapore Authority) later this month.

For additional information contact: Caroline Watts | Hong Kong | T +852 2978 8068 |