National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) has been appointed by Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) as financial advisor on its AED8bn ($2.18bn) Khalifa Port & Industrial Zone (KPIZ) project.  

NBAD will support ADPC in structuring and executing its long term financial strategy on the KPIZ project which is due for completion in 2030.

Funding is likely to come from a range of sources and may include bilateral and syndicated bank debt, export credit agency (ECA) finance, Islamic funding and debt capital markets.

Located midway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the Taweelah industrial district, KPIZ will be built over five phases.

The first phase will become operational in the fourth quarter of 2012 with the launch of Khalifa Port replacing Abu Dhabi’s existing main port of Mina Zayed. It will have an initial capacity of 2 million Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) of containers and 9 million tonnes of general cargo.

Upon completion in 2030, the port’s capacity will be raised to 15 million TEUs of containers and 35 million tonnes of general cargo.

KPIZ will comprise 420 square kilometres of industrial land organised into integrated clusters for aluminium, petrochemicals, glass, paper and other major sectors.