Joaquín Sales

Joaquín advises banks, financial institutions and funds, as well as corporations, on all kinds of financing transactions – project finance, acquisition finance, corporate and asset finance – as well as on structured finance transactions and securitisation deals, both domestic and international.

He provides guidance to commercial banks, multilateral banks, funds and corporations in the energy, infrastructure and capital markets sectors.

Recent transactions include advising:

• Hispasat on the financing for the construction and launch of two new satellites, with ECA facilities
• Advising the commercial bank syndicate on the financing of the expansion of the regasification terminal of Bahía de Bizkaia Gas, S.L. (BBG) in Bilbao.
• The European Investment Bank on the refinancing of two toll roads
• Advice to a syndicate of commercial banks (Abanca and BBVA) on the financing of the Reganosa LNG terminal.
• Advice to AustralianSuper on an investment in a group of Spanish toll road companies, through a €300 million secured term loan structurally subordinated to senior €1 billion facilities and hedging.
• Advice to a syndicate of existing lenders and hedge providers on the refinancing of existing project finance facilities for infrastructure assets in Madrid.
• Advice to Banco Santander on the financing of the Berry Bank 2 wind farm in Australia, with an export credit guarantee from EKF. Deal value: $319 million.
• Advice to Finerge on the financing of a portfolio of PV solar plants owned by Finerge in Spain and Portugal.
• Advice to the European Investment Bank on the financing of the construction and operation of seven wind farms with a total capacity of 139 MW in Spain (Project Lanuza). The initial investor in the “Lanuza” project is the Saudi Arabia based Alfanar Group. Total cost of the project: €643 million.
• Advice to VM Energía on the financing of the wind projects Sotillo and Tablares, which are located in Zaragoza (Spain) and have an aggregated power capacity of 47 MW.
• Advice to the European Investment Bank on the financing of the construction and operation of nine wind plants with a total capacity of 300 MW in Spain (Project Goya”). The shareholders in the “Goya” project are Mirova, a subsidiary of Natixis.dedicated to responsible investment, General Electric, Engie and Forestalia.
• Advice to Standard Chartered Bank, China Minsheng Bank and Banco Santander on the Financing to develop a Waste-to-Energy Plant in Vietnam.
• Advice to National Australia Bank Limited on the financing of a power project in Australia sponsored by Acciona.

Memberships:

Madrid Bar Association.

Recognitions:

According to Chambers Europe, “[Joaquín Sales] has an absolute availability to resolve all types of issues related to financing, from large-scale issues to small details that may arise due to issues of the different entities of a very diverse pool (9 international entities). Agility when answering any type of query. Responses and reports in English and Spanish immediately in any type of query.’

‘The KWM team led by Joaquín Sales has solid experience, closeness to the client, very quick response and price sensitivity.’