Chadbourne & Parke represented the lenders on the US$4.025 billion financing of Train Two of the Freeport LNG liquefaction and export project at Quintana Island near Freeport, Texas. The Freeport LNG liquefaction project is an approximately US$11 billion project, making it the largest fully non-recourse construction financing project ever.

The train two financing closed on November 25, 2014 and includes US$4.025 billion in debt financing and US$1.3 billion of equity financing. The debt financing is being provided by 25 commercial banks and financial institutions under a seven-year mini-perm debt facility. The equity funding is being provided by IFM Investors.

Train two has a design capacity of 4.64 million tons per year, is being constructed by CB&I, Inc. and Zachry Industrial, Inc, and has a take-or-pay liquefaction tolling agreements with BP Energy Company.

“We are delighted to have represented lenders on this landmark financing,” said Rohit Chaudhry, the lead Chadbourne partner on the transaction. “The project had a unique and complex structure, and the fact that we reached closing in a timely manner is a result of the tremendous effort and creativity of all of the parties involved.”

“Chadbourne’s experience on past LNG transactions and in representing lenders in large complex projects gave the lenders a high degree of comfort with the project’s financing documents,” said Steve Greenwald, Senior Advisor at Credit Suisse, the Sole Global Arranger of the bank facilities.
“The leadership of Rohit Chaudhry and the Chadbourne team was an essential element of reaching a successful and timely close on Freeport LNG liquefaction financing. Chadbourne’s ability to efficiently lead a multitude of financing parties through an extremely complex transaction is unsurpassed,” said John Tobola, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Freeport LNG.

The Chadbourne team working on the project included partners Rohit Chaudhry, Noam Ayali, Marissa Alcala, Eli Katz, Marian Baldwin Fuerst, Robin Ball, Marjorie Glover, Thomas McCormack and Ted Zink; counsels Scott Bank, Donna Bobbish, Sue Cowell, Christy Rivera, and Monika Szymanski; and associates Brian Greene, Rebecca Abou-Chedid, Kirsten Carlson, Tracy Horton, Eric Kamerman, Noah Pollak, Deanne Barrow and Christopher Nalls.