The largest wind farm in Western Balkans, Čibuk 1, officially started operations on Friday 11 October, following an investment worth EUR 300 million. The wind farm has a maximum capacity of 158MW and will generate power to supply 113,000 households.
The EUR 300 million wind farm Čibuk 1 was developed by Vetroelektrane Balkana, a Serbian company wholly-owned by Tesla Wind, a joint venture between Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, the Taaleri SolarWind I fund, managed by Finnish renewable energy infrastructure fund manager and developer Taaleri Energia, and the German development finance institution DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH
Financial support was provided by the EBRD and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. The EBRD is providing a EUR 107.7 million syndicated loan, 55 million euros of which are syndicated to B lenders. In parallel, the IFC provided EUR 107.7 million, for a total of EUR 215 million.
Karanovic & Partners has won the 2018 CEE Legal Matters Deal of the Year Award for Serbia for the EBRD and IFC financing of Čibuk 1 Windfarm. Our legal team – led by Partners Maja Jovančević Šetka* and Petar Mitrović*, acting as the local counsel for EBRD and IFC, advised on all local law aspects of the financing, including the preparation of due diligence and support in the negotiations of the facility agreement and other financing and project documents. Norton Rose Fulbright from London acted as the international counsel to the lenders.
We congratulate all participants of the project on reaching a milestone that should assist Serbia to meet renewable energy targets for 2020.
*independent Attorney at Law in cooperation with Karanović & Partners
