On June 26, 2015, OPTrust through subsidiaries was a material investor as part of a consortium of investors with subsidiaries of GE Finance and Partners Group AG who invested in the acquisition of the Ararat Wind Farms project that is sponsored by Renewable Energy Systems who continues to hold an interest for a collective AUS$450 million commitment by the consortium.
The Ararat Wind farm will be located on rural land located approximately 180km northwest of Melbourne, Australia.
OPTrust was represented in-house by Alexandra Doerffer, Associate General Counsel and assisted in Canada by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP with a team comprising Chris Murray (corporate and pensions & benefits), John Groenewegen , Matias Milet (tax) , Anna Zalewski (pensions & benefits) and Kevin Colan (US tax). King & Wood Malleson acted for OPTrust in Australia with a team comprising Dominic Bortoluzzi, Jonathan Mitchell and Neveen Ayad. GE was represented by Claire Rogers. Partners Group AG was represented by Andrew Crook of Gilbert & Tobin.
Renewable Energy Systems was represented by Herbert Smith Freehills with a team comprising Toby Anderson, Joel Rennie, David Ryan, and Peter Davis.