The Egyptian Refinery Company (ERC) is due to receive lending commitments from banks by mid-June for the financing of its $3.5bn Mostorod refinery project.

The deal was launched to the bank market in late April, with around 15 banks requested to participate in the financing, including four pathfinder banks that have been working on the structuring of the financing.

The pathfinder banks are the UK’s HSBC, France’s Credit Agricole, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi and Egypt’s CIB Bank. France’s Societe Generale is also acting as financial adviser on the project.

The deal does not involve any commercial loans, instead the $2.5bn debt is split between several export credit agency (ECA) tranches, providing either direct loans, or bank funded loans with ECA cover. Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) is providing around $1bn in direct loans and guarantees, and the African Development Bank( AfDB) is providing $225m. The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing a loan of $500m, but requires banks to provide guarantees. The Export Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) will provide guarantees on a bank tranche of $675m

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has also agreed to invest in the project as an equity partner. The other equity investors in the project are the local Citadel Capital and state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC).

The deal will have a tenor of 17 years, and each tranche is expected to be priced differently. Financial close is expected to occur by the end of July.