GE Unit provides $50 Million loan for acquisition of Illinois Power Plant
GE Energy Financial Services is providing a loan to investment firm Rockland Capital, LLC to support its acquisition of the gas–fired Elgin Energy Center in Illinois.
The deal was announced today at the 29? ? Annual Platt's Global Power Markets Conference in Las Vegas where GE Energy Financial Services serves as an Executive Sponsor.
Rockland Capital purchased the power generation facility, which sits on a 27–acre site 40 miles northwest of Chicago, as part of a larger acquisition earlier this year. GE Energy Financial Services is providing a $50 million senior secured term loan that will be used in part to finance the Elgin acquisition and pay related fees and expenses. Further details of the transaction were not disclosed.
The 484–megawatt Elgin peaking power plant, which sells its capacity into the PJM market, began operating in 2002 with four simple–cycle natural gas–fired turbines. Its operations and maintenance are provided by ProEnergy Services with additional energy management services by Tenaska Power Services.
Carl Peterson, Managing Director and Debt Origination leader at GE Energy Financial Services, said:
“The Elgin investment marks our first opportunity to serve Rockland Capital as a lead lender, and underscores GE's ability to lead both contracted and merchant power transactions.”
Shane Litts, Partner at Rockland Capital, added:
"We partner with key industry players like GE to free up capital for other projects and focus on asset optimization."
GE Energy Financial Services holds equity and debt investments in power projects with a combined capacity of 30 gigawatts, equivalent to the installed generating capacity of Norway. Recent power lead arranging transactions include the Saguaro Power Plant in Nevada and Nelson Energy Center in Illinois. The GE unit offers flexible financial structures ranging from common and preferred equity to debt and acquisition finance.
The Elgin Energy Center is part of a 1,166 MW portfolio of three Illinois power plants that Rockland Capital acquired from Ameren Corporation in January. The transaction was the first acquisition for Rockland Power Partners II, a $425 million investment fund closed in December 2013.
