Turkey’s Limak Holding is in talks with a group of regional banks to fund its work on Kuwait’s $4.3bn airport project.

The structure and the size of the financing has yet to be determined and Limak is currently engaged in talks with lenders in Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE, a banker familiar with the negotiations said. The banks could end up extended financing close to $2bn as they expect to fund between 40 and 50 percent of the project ticket size, says the source, requesting anonymity as talks are private.

Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC) in August approved the award of the contract to build the new passenger terminal at Kuwait International Airport to a joint venture of Limak-Holding and the local Kharafi National, two weeks after the offers were submitted. The project was retendered by the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) earlier this year. The Limak JV’s $4.3bn winning bid was nearly $250m lower than its original offer, made in November 2014 during the first round of bidding.

Despite being selected for the contract, Limak still hasn’t received the award letter and other bidders have been asked to extend their guarantees, making it difficult for the interested banks to get approvals from their respective credit departments for the deal, says the banker.

An official at Limak didn’t respond to phone calls and an email seeking comments. An official at MPW declined to comment.