Overview
Robert O’Leary is a senior associate in the Project Development & Finance practice.
His practice involves domestic and international project finance and project development. He focuses on the financing of projects in Latin America, representing commercial banks, multilateral and development finance institutions, investors and sponsors in a variety of renewable energy, natural gas, natural resources and transmission transactions.
Experience
- ENGIE and its affiliates, including Heolios Intermediate 1, Engie Eólica Tres Mesas 3, Eólica Tres Mesas 4, Recursos Solares PV de México IV, BNB Villa Ahumada Solar, Buenos Días Energía and Engie Abril PV, on the limited recourse project financing and related interest rate hedging in respect of four solar parks and two wind farms in Mexico with a combined capacity of approximately 721 MW. The transaction includes a construction phase individualized per project financing, an operations phase portfolio holding company financing and, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, the option to finance an additional solar park or wind farm project during the construction or operations phase.The project financing is ENGIE’s first green loan financing for renewables projects in the world
- Bluestone Resources on the development and proposed financing of the Cerro Blanco gold mining project in Guatemala
- FMO, DEG and PROPARCO as lenders, and FMO as facility agent on the $56.4 million financing for the completion and operation of an approximately 31.5 MW wind-powered electric generating facility in Jutiapa, Guatemala, owned and operated by Transmisión de Electricidad, which is part of Grupo Terra.This project forms part of the push to diversify Guatemala’s energy grid, which has significant renewable energy potential but is currently reliant on mostly conventional sources such as fossil fuel and coal
- Transelec Concesiones, an affiliate of Transelec, with the approximately $358 million loan facility and associated interest rate hedging for the individualized portfolio construction financing of four independent transmission lines (each with a capacity of between 2x220 kV and 2x500 kV) and four associated independent substations in Chile, with EDC, KfW IPEX-Bank and MUFG acting as mandated lead arrangers
- Joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunners on the senior secured notes issued by, and senior secured credit facilities made available to, Cometa Energía (Actis) with its $1.256 billion acquisition of the InterGen portfolio of energy assets in Mexico (“LatAm M&A Deal of the Year” (2018) by IJGlobal )
- FMO, as lender and mandated lead arranger, and DEG, as facility agent on the senior and sub-senior financing of the construction of Pacific Solar Energy’s 50 MW solar-powered electric generating facility in Honduras
- Y-GEN Eléctrica (Y-GEN) and Y-GEN II Eléctrica (Y-GEN II), each a joint venture formed by GE and YPF, on the limited-recourse financing for the construction of two gas-fired power stations located in the Argentine provinces of Neuquén and Tucumán. This is the first project finance loan to close in Argentina in more than a decade
- Transmisora Eléctrica del Norte (TEN), a joint venture between Engie and RED Electrica of Spain, on the financing of its transmission line connecting the two major electrical grids in Chile, involving an innovative and complex dual-currency (USD and CLP) multi-tranche financing (“Latin America Transmission Deal of the Year” (2017) by IJGlobal )
Qualifications
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Education
New York University School of Law
J.D.
- Managing Editor, Journal of International Law and Politics
The City College of New York
M.S. in Bilingual Education (With Honors)
University of Colorado
B.A. in International Affairs, summa cum laude
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Admissions
- New York
- Illinois (inactive)
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Languages