Orascom Construction Industries with Spain’s Aqualia have completed the fundraising for a loan to develop the planned New Cairo Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The deal was completed in early February after banks were given until the end of January to respond to invitations to fund the project.

The financing raised is for a $110m loan provided by Egypt’s National Societe General Bank, Commercial International Bank, Arab African International Bank and Ahli United Bank Egypt.

The loan has a 15-year tenor and pricing is about 300 basis points above the Central Bank of Egypt’s lending rate.

The engineering, procurement and construction contract is valued at $157m, with the $110m loan being used principally to fund this.

The full $480m project value also includes costs over the 20-year concession to operate the plant.

The project is Cairo’s first public-private partnership in the wastewater sector and is being led by the Housing, Utilities & Urban Development Ministry. The IFC, a division of the World Bank, is acting as an adviser to the Egyptian government.

The New Cairo wastewater plant, which is being developed on a build-operate-transfer basis, will have capacity of 250,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) of wastewater.

The development of the project will take two years (MEED 3:12:09).