Int'l Power refinances debt in Australia

Electricity generating group International Power has announced that is has refinanced its debt facilities at the Hazelwood and Loy Yang B power plants in Australia.

The group, 70%-owned by French power titan GDF SUEZ, says that the A$652m (around £420m) of debt at its 1,542MW Hazelwood plant will be repaid from GDF's corporate resources.

"This repayment demonstrates the strength and flexibility of the GDF SUEZ balance sheet and delivers synergies to the Group, which were anticipated from the Combination between International Power and GDF SUEZ in February 2011," a statement said on Monday morning.

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The current facility for the plant will be repaid on June 29th.

Meanwhile, the debt at its 955MW Loy Yan B plant, co-owned with partner Misui & Co, has been refinanced with a syndicate of banks, which provided project finance debt of A$1.06bn (£0.68m) with a tenor of five years, maturing on June 30th 2017.

"The refinancing of both facilities was completed in a challenging environment of continuing regulatory uncertainty around energy and carbon policy," the company said.

BC