Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Citi and ING on a $521.5 million, 12-year K-SURE and SERV supported facilities for PetroVietnam Power Corporation (PV Power). This financing will support the completion of PV Power’s Nhon Trach 3 and 4 power project, which is set to be Vietnam’s first power project that would exclusively utilise LNG as feedstock. Located in the southern Dong Nai province, the Nhon Trach 3 and 4 power project is expected to add 1.6GW of capacity to Vietnam’s electricity network.

Citi and ING acted as joint coordinators and joint mandated lead arrangers under the facilities. Furthermore, Citi acted as K-SURE Agent, Global Facility Agent, Security Agent and Account Bank and ING acted as SERV Agent for this project.

The Norton Rose Fulbright team was led by Singapore partner Nick Merritt who was assisted by counsel Aditya Rebbapragada and associates Tina Teo and Su Xin Lim. A team at VILAF led by Vu Le Trung and including Nguyen Thi Minh Ha, Vu Ha Anh, Nguyen Bao Ngoc and Nguyen Ngoc Mai advised on Vietnam law related matters. A team at Kim & Chang led by Grace Nam and including Sang-Jin Ahn and Hyunwook Lew advised on K-SURE related matters. Lukas Roesler of Bär & Karrer AG advised on SERV related matters.

Nick Merritt commented:

“We are delighted to have advised our clients in relation to this deal which supports Vietnam’s energy transition strategy under Power Development Plan 8 (PDP8) that aims to reduce reliance on coal and increase use of natural gas, besides renewable energy. We are keen to see other similar gas-fired power projects approved under PDP8 being developed in Vietnam.”