The banks, which are arranging the facility on a club basis, are Riyad Bank, Al-Bank Al-Saudi Al-Fransi, Arab National Bank, Saudi American Bank, National Commercial Bank, Saudi Investment Bank, Saudi British Bank, Saudi Hollandi Bank, Gulf International Bank (GIB), Arab Banking Corporation, Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp), Mizuho Financial Groupand Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

It is understood that the facility was oversubscribed and that the bidding banks had their allocations cut back. Each bank will not be contributing an equal portion of the debt package.

GIB has acted as financial adviser for JUPC, a subsidiary of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic).

'The really impressive part is that the bank group was put together within 28 days of the deal being launched,' says a Riyadh-based banker close to the deal. 'We are in the documentation stage at the moment.'

JUPC's complex will include a 575,000-tonne-a-year (t/y) ethylene glycol plant - for which five technical bids are currently under evaluation; a 150,000-t/y linear alpha olefins unit; and a 1 million-t/y ethylene cracker - for which a consortium headed by the US' Halliburton KBR was awarded an estimated $350 million engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract in November (MEED 4:1:02, Petrochemicals).