Kaukauna, Wisconsin and Overland Park, Kansas – Tyr Energy, Inc. announced today it has acquired half of the Fox Energy Center, a 593-megawatt power plant in Wisconsin, from GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of GE (NYSE: GE). Tyr purchased the 50 percent equity interest in Fox Energy Company, LLC from an affiliate of GE Energy Financial Services, which retains 50 percent.
Concurrent with the equity investment, Fox Energy completed debt financing of the dual-fueled, combined cycle power project with a lender group including General Electric Capital Corporation, Union Bank of California, N.A., ING Capital LLC, and WestLB AG’s New York branch. Purchase and financing details were not disclosed. Fox Energy began commercial operation in 2005, and its output is sold under a long-term tolling agreement with Wisconsin Public Service Corporation. Outputs fom the units’ duct burners is sold under a capacity contract with a third party. A unit of GE Energy operates the facility.
Karl Usami, Tyr’s CEO, said, “Tyr is very pleased to invest in Fox Energy and once again partner with GE in an outstanding power project. The Fox acquisition is Tyr’s third major transaction this year and is consistent with Tyr’s goal of continuing to invest in and manage a portfolio of strong operating power assets and development opportunities.”
The transaction underscores GE Energy Financial Services’ longstanding relationship with Tyr. This is the fourth transaction between Tyr and GE Energy Financial Services. GE Energy Financial Services provided both the original debt financing and then the refinancing for the Lincoln Generating Facility, LLC in Illinois. It led the financing of Tyr’s wholly owned Commonwealth Chesapeake Company, LLC project in Virginia earlier this year. Tyr and the GE unit were co-owners of the Green Country Energy project in Jenks, OK from 2005-2007 prior to its sale to J-Power.
Fieldstone Private Capital Group served as advisor to Tyr on the Fox transaction, Husch Blackwell Sanders served as Tyr’s legal counsel, and Leonard Street served as Tyr’s federal regulatory counsel.
About Tyr Energy
Tyr Energy, formed in 2002, is owned by both ITOCHU Corporation, an international trading conglomerate, and its U.S. based subsidiary, ITOCHU International, Inc. Tyr Energy focuses on owning equity interests in U.S. independent power assets and providing asset management services to facilities in which it is an owner. Tyr currently owns interests in assets totaling 1,153 megawatts (gross) in California, Virginia and Wisconsin. Tyr also holds a 49% interest in American Renewables, LLC, which is developing biomass-fired power projects in the United States. Tyr Energy has offices in Overland Park, Kansas and Stamford, Connecticut. Worldwide, ITOCHU owns interests in independent power facilities in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Japan in addition to the U.S., and it also owns NAES Corporation, a premier provider of power generation services worldwide.
