CHARLESTOWN Nevis, March 28th 2011 - A high level evaluation team of the Export- Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im), which is proposing to fund the West Indies Power (WIP) USD$57MM Nevis Geothermal Project, visited the island on March 23-25, to conduct the final site evaluation of the project. The team was composed of John Schuster, Vice President; Uduak Essien, Senior Loan Officer; Michaela Ricchiute, Attorney; and Chris Dymond, Financial Advisor.
The team’s visit aimed to complete Ex-Im’s evaluation of the Nevis Geothermal Project so that a recommendation of loan approval can be forwarded to the Ex-Im Board of Directors this coming April.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) www.exim.gov is the official export credit agency of the United States. Ex-Im Bank's mission is to assist in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to international markets. With more than 70 years of experience, Ex-Im Bank has supported more than $400 billion of U.S. exports, primarily to developing markets worldwide.
The Ex-Im representatives had meetings with senior government officials of the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) and Nevis Electricity Company Ltd (Nevlec), including Premier Hon. Joseph Parry; Junior Minister Carlisle Powell; Laurie Lawrence, Financial Secretary; Ernie Stapleton, Chairman of Nevlec; and Cartwright Farrell, General Manager of Nevlec.
They also toured the Geothermal Development site at Spring Hill and met with the senior management of WIP and with its financial partners Renova Capital Partners.
Renova Capital Partners www.renovacap.com - a Denver-based private investment partnership founded in 2007 to finance, develop, own and aggregate middle-market renewable energy infrastructure assets - has partnered with WIP to provide equity and financial services for the Nevis Geothermal project.
Kerry McDonald, CEO of WIP, stated “The Ex-Im group was very impressed with the Nevis Geothermal Project and stated their intent to support the recommendation to the Ex-Im Board of Directors to finance the Project. This will be the first loan ever given by Ex-Im to a project on Nevis and will be the largest that it has ever given to a project in the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis. WIP is pleased to have the support of the official export credit agency of the US Government in the development of the Nevis Geothermal Project.”
West Indies Power (WIP) www.westindiespower.com is an independent power producer specializing in the development of geothermal energy in the Caribbean with geothermal development projects on Nevis/St. Kitts, Dominica, Saba and other Caribbean islands
