Kirkland Advises Ares on Expansion of Partnership with ENGIE
Kirkland & Ellis advised Ares Management Infrastructure Opportunities funds (Ares) on the expansion of its partnership with ENGIE North America via the addition of a new portfolio of solar and storage assets in the U.S. ENGIE will retain a controlling share in the portfolio and will continue to operate and manage the assets. The overall 0.9 GW portfolio consists of three solar projects in operation across ERCOT and MISO, and one co-located battery storage project in ERCOT. Kirkland also advised Ares on the initial investment in the partnership, including a 2.7 GW portfolio of U.S. renewables and storage assets, in September 2024.
In connection with the investment, Kirkland advised Ares on securing a new backleveraged first lien credit facility, which was jointly arranged by MUFG Bank, Ltd. and BNP Paribas.
Read the transaction press release
The Kirkland team included corporate lawyers Rob Goodin, Daniel Cadis, Nicolas Lee, Lucy Li and Lauren Stelck; debt finance lawyers Rohit Chaudhry, Olivia George and William Nicholson; tax lawyers Bill Dong, Nicole Martin, Mike Masri, Sophia Han and Brittany Nguyen; energy regulatory lawyer Drew Stuyvenberg; and environmental transactions lawyer Jim Dolphin.
