NH Investment provides $235 mn financing to US gas power plant

NH Investment & Securities Co. Ltd. has underwritten a $200 million senior debt and a $35 million equity interest for the construction of a natural gas-fired power plant in Ohio, acting as a lead underwriter of the financing package.

Along with Credit Agricole, NH Investment was selected as a lead manager of a $600 million senior debt package for the 1,100 MW South Field Electric Generating Facility, according to investment banking sources on June 24.

It became the first South Korean financial institution to lead a US power plant financing.

The brokerage company is selling down the $200 million senior debt mainly to domestic insurance companies.

It will resell the $35 million equity interest to Kiwoom Asset Management Co. Ltd., a South Korean investment firm, and a fund formed by other units of NongHyup Financial Group, its parent company, via NH-Amundi Asset Management Co. Ltd.

The $1.3 billion power project in Wellsville, Ohio is being developed by Advanced Power, a Boston-based energy development company and can provide electricity to around 1 million houses.

It will begin construction in the second half of this year to be operational from 2021.

In early 2017, NH Investment provided $200 million financing for Cricket Valley Energy Center, a 1,100 MW gas-fired power generating facility, in Dover, New York, together with its parent group and an affiliate insurance company.

It also had participated in a refinancing package of Newark Energy Center in New Jersey in 2016.

By Daehun Kim and Donghun Lee

daepun@hankyung.com

Photo: Getty Images Bank