International law firm Simmons & Simmons has advised Mainstream Renewable Power (‘Mainstream’) on its $1.9 billion US dollar joint venture in Africa with pan-emerging markets investor Actis.

The joint venture is 40% owned by Mainstream and 60% by Actis. The new platform, Lekela Power, is intended to deliver between 700 and 900 MW of wind and solar projects across the continent by 2018.

Financial close and the start of construction has already been announced for three wind farms in South Africa with a combined capacity of 360MW, which are expected to begin operating commercially in 2016. These projects were awarded to Mainstream as part of the third round of the South African Government’s renewable energy procurement programme and sold into the Lekela Platform on financial close. Mainstream also has a pipeline of other projects across Africa which are intended to be transferred to the Lekela platform once they reach financial close.

Mainstream is a global wind and solar developer with a development pipeline of almost 17,000 MW across four continents.

Barry Lynch (Managing Director – Onshore Procurement, Construction & Operations) commented: “Mainstream was delighted to work again with Simmons & Simmons on this transaction to build on experience together from setting up our similar entity in Chile in 2013. Their ability to understand our requirements from a legal and commercial perspective and deliver those contractually for us is very important.”

The Simmons & Simmons team was led by London partner Iain Duncan, assisted by London partner Andrew Petry, associates Raj Bavishi and Jack Rutherford, Of Counsel Oscar Hoefnagels and trainee Polina Hristova.

Simmons & Simmons previously advised Mainstream on its $1.4billion US dollar joint venture with Actis to deliver wind and solar projects in Chile.