Yi Zhou is an associate in the Project Development & Finance practice.

She focuses on international and domestic project development and finance, private placement offerings, private equity, acquisition financings and restructurings in the energy and infrastructure sectors.  She represents major sponsors and developers, leading global financial institutions, funds, corporations, the U.S. government and multilateral development banks and institutions.

Yi received her legal education in the United States, China and France. She is a native Mandarin speaker and is fluent in English and French.

Power & Energy

• Brookfield Asset Management and its affiliates in connection with the financing of a portfolio of community solar projects located in the State of New York. The portfolio is owned and developed by ClearPath Energy and the financing will allow ClearPath to expand its existing 2 gigawatt pipeline further while accelerating the progression of late-stage development assets into construction and operations
• The four largest electric generation companies in Chile being AES Gener, Colbun, Enel, ENGIE on the securitization through Chile Electricity PEC SpA of certain credit rights generated by the 2019 Tariff Stabilization Law which put a temporary cap on electricity prices to Chilean households and small businesses. The securitization is funded by Senior Secured Zero Coupon 144/Reg S notes arranged by Goldman Sachs and financing provided by IDB Invest “Project & Infrastructure Finance: Bond of the Year” (2021), LatinFinance); (“Structured Finance and Securitisation Deal of the Year” (2022), IFLR Americas)
• Mandated lead arrangers, lenders and issuing banks on the portfolio financing of a wind project (the “Copihue Portfolio”) with a total installed capacity of 148.5 MW. The Copihue Portfolio is the third and final portfolio of the Andes Renovables Portfolio being developed by the sponsor, Mainstream Renewable Power Limited, following the successful closing of the Huemul and Cóndor Portfolios
• Mandated lead arrangers, lenders and issuing banks on the approximately $543 million financing of a portfolio of three wind and two solar PV projects (the “Huemul Portfolio”), owned by Mainstream Renewable Power Limited and with a total installed capacity of 641.1 MW in the Republic of Chile (“Renewable Energy Financing of the Year” (2021), LatinFinance)
• Mandated lead arrangers and lenders on the portfolio financing of three wind and one solar PV projects (the “Condor Portfolio”) with a total installed capacity of 550 MW in Chile. The Condor Portfolio is owned by Mainstream Renewable Power Limited and will serve three of the seven 20-year distribution company power purchase agreements awarded to Mainstream by the Chilean government in August 2016 (“Americas Renewables Deal of the Year” (2019), Project Finance International)
• MUFG Bank, as administrative agent and coordinating lead arranger, and the lenders and issuing banks on the back leveraged financing for a portfolio of six solar projects owned indirectly by Consolidated Edison Development, located in Fresno County, California, Clark County, Nevada and Maricopa County, Arizona
• EGE Haina on a Turnkey Engineering, Procurement and Construction Agreement for a 120 MW solar photovoltaic power project located in Yaguate, Dominican Republic (“Best Utility Scale Project” (2022), CREF)
• ENGIE and its affiliates, including Heolios Intermediate 1, Engie Eólica Tres Mesas 3, Eólica Tres Mesas 4, Recursos Solares PV de México IV, BNB Villa Ahumada Solar, Buenos Días Energía and Engie Abril PV, on the limited-recourse project financing and related interest rate hedging in respect of four solar parks and two wind farms in Mexico with a combined capacity of approximately 721 MW. The transaction includes a construction phase individualized per project financing, an operations phase portfolio holding company financing and, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, the option to finance an additional solar park or wind farm project during the construction or operations phase. The project financing is ENGIE’s first green loan financing for renewables projects in the world (“Latin American Sponsor of the Year Deal of the Year” (2019), IJGlobal)
• Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce as administrative agent, collateral agent, intercreditor agent and lender, BOA as lender, National Australia Bank as lender and CIBC Bank USA as depositary agent on the $150 million revolving credit facility refinancing for Carrix, Inc. The transaction included a bring-down due diligence report of Carrix’s material domestic and international operations, a pay-off of the existing term facility through the issuance of senior secured notes and a change in agent from DNB ASA Bank to CIBC. Shearman worked closely with local counsel in Canada, Mexico and Panama to ensure the transaction upheld existing security arrangements, in place from the 2017 Carrix financing and held on a pari passu basis with the noteholders

Infrastructure

• Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, as coordinating lead arranger and administrative agent, and the lenders in the approximately $852 million green loan financing to STACK Innovation Holdings, LLC, as Borrower, of four data centers located in the City of Manassas, Virginia owned by the Borrower and leased to Amazon Data Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc.
• Note purchasers and bank lenders on a senior secured note issuance and senior secured credit facility for Georgetown Energy Partners LLC, an affiliate of Engie, the concessionaire for the long-term concession of the Georgetown University Utility System
• MUFG and SMBC, as lead arrangers and lenders on the $133 million financing of the design, engineering, construction and completion of three data centers located in the City of Sterling, Loudoun County, Virginia by MECP1 Ashburn 1, LLC as borrower and leased to Amazon Data Services, Inc.
• Bank of America as administrative agent and lender, and CIBC as lender on the $105 million revolving credit facility for SSA Terminals (Seattle Terminals), an entity indirectly owned by Carrix, Inc. The transaction included a third-party pledge of 100% of the equity interests in the Borrower held by a Swiss company, Terminal Investment Limited Sàrl
• Note purchasers on a private placement by Chicago Parking Meters (“CPM”) of its $900 million aggregate principal amount of senior secured notes to refinance CPM’s existing debt and other corporate purposes, and a follow-on $300 million financing comprising $270 million of senior secured notes and a $30 million senior secured term loan financing, with The Korean Development Bank as administrative agent and lender. CPM is the holder of a 75-year concession for all on-street metered parking in the city of Chicago.JP Morgan Securities was the placement agent for the issuance and Macquarie Capital acted as financial advisor to CPM
• ING Capital on a $35 million letter of credit facility for Citizens Parking, one of the largest parking companies providing 1,100 locations and 300,000 parking spaces across the US and Puerto Rico

Acquisition Finance

• ING Capital LLC, as administrative agent, collateral agent and lender, and Banco Santander, S.A. and ING Capital LLC, as joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunners, on the $105 million senior secured credit facilities incurred by Unison US SPV II, LLC, as borrower, to finance the acquisition costs of certain existing and future telecommunications assets of the borrower
• Banco Santander, S.A. as mandated lead arranger, administrative agent and lender, on the €103 million senior secured credit facilities incurred by Infraitalia-FS S.r.l., an Italian company, as borrower, to refinance the acquisition costs of certain existing and future telecommunications assets of the borrower
• Société Générale, as administrative agent, and the lenders on the approximately $710 million senior secured credit facilities to Midwest Fiber Acquisition for the $1 billion refinancing of Everstream Fiber (“North America Digital Infrastructure Deal of the Year” [2022] by Proximo)
• Nomura Securities International, Inc., as Lead Arranger, on the $185 million secured credit facilities for the acquisition of a portfolio of three data centers located in Orangeburg, New York, Chicago, Illinois and Cheyenne, Wyoming
• Tarsadia Capital in connection with the sale of 100% of its interests in Igneo Holdings (Igneo) to Korea Zinc, in connection with a majority investment by Korea Zinc in Igneo valued at approximately $332 million
• Private placement investors purchasing senior secured notes issued to finance Axium Infrastructure’s acquisition of Upper Peninsula Power Company, a Michigan regulated public utility company; and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce as arranger, administrative agent and lender/issuing bank on both a $75 million revolving credit facility for Upper Peninsula Power Company and a $7.2 million letter of credit facility for Upper Peninsula Power Holding Company, the 100% owner of Upper Peninsula Power Company
• Note purchasers on a private placement by WETT Holdings LLC of its approximately $272 million aggregate principal amount of senior secured notes to finance the acquisition of approximately 375 miles of rate-regulated electric transmission lines in the state of Texas; and MUFG Union Bank and Zions Bancorporation as lenders, and MUFG Bank as administrative agent on the $75 million term loan financing by Hotspur SPV LLC to fund the payment of the purchase price of the acquisition and for other general corporate purposes
• Albemarle Corporation, as guarantor, and Albemarle Finance Company, Albemarle New Holding and Albemarle Wodgina, as borrowers, on a $1.2 billion unsecured syndicated credit facility to finance the acquisition of a 60% interest in certain assets comprising Mineral Resources Limited’s Wodgina lithium project in Western Australia
• MUFG Bank and National Australia Bank Limited as senior lenders and joint lead arrangers on the amendment and restatement of a loan agreement and certain other related financing documents entered into in connection with a 2019 spinoff and acquisition financing by affiliates of Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets of certain North American subsidiaries of Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha

Professional Affiliations

• Member of the Project Finance Committee, New York City Bar Association