Société Générale Arranges Financing for Cernavoda Nuclear Plant

On January 3, 2003, Société Générale, Banca Romana Pentru Dezvoltare (BRD), a Société Générale subsidiary, and Société Générale (Canada) arranged multi-national buyer credit facilities and commerical credit facilities in favour of Societatea Nationala “Nuclearelectrica” SA (SNN), a Romanian state-owned utility, for the completion of the construction and commissioning of unit 2 of the nuclear power plant in Cernavoda, Romania. The buyer credit facilities are guaranteed by the Ministry of Public Finance of Romania. Export Development Canada (EDC) provided a guarantee of the Canadian buyer credit facility under the Canada account up to $328 million for the purchase of a second CANDU 6 reactor (approximately 700 MWe) from Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. (AECL), while COFACE, SACE and EXIM Bank agreed to provide guarantees or insurance for the French, Italian and U.S. portions of the other buyer credit facilities. AECL and its Italian partner, AnsaldoEnergia, signed the commerical contract for unit 2 in May 2001. The project schedule envisions completion and commissioning of unit 2 in 2006 to 2007. The total value of the commercial contract is approximately $1 billion. AECL and AnsaldoEnergia completed the construction and commissioning of unit 1 in 1996.

SNN was represented by Doru Epure in Bucharest. The Ministry of Public Finance of Romania was represented in-house by Gheorghe Matei, chief, legal. EDC was represented in-house by Mel Massey, assistant general counsel, finance, and Christiane La Salle, senior legal counsel. Société Générale, Société Générale (Canada) and BRD were represented by Donald Francoeur (corporate and banking) and Pierre Langlois (environment) of Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP in Montreal, assisted by Christophe Tindy, legal counsel, Société Générale in Paris, and by Ana Rednev (corporate) of CMS Cameron McKenna in Bucharest.