A $507 million financing package was agreed on 31 March for a privately-owned, 412-MW combined-cycle power plant in Punjab. Germany's Siemens Power Generation, which has the turnkey contract for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), expects to announce subcontracts for the scheme by the end of April.

The plant, run on residual fuel oil, is expected to be commissioned at Sidhnai Barrage, near Lahore, by mid-1998, and will be built on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis by Rousch (Pakistan) Power. The company was set up by Rousch Finance (66.3 per cent) of the US, Germany's Siemens Power Ventures (26.4 per cent) and ESB International (ESBI), an Irish engineering consultancy group.

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) acted as the financial adviser for the loan, and is the debt co-arranger together with the local National Development Finance Corporation (NDFC). Core funding and financial framework were provided by the World Bank.

The power plant will sell its output under a long-term purchase agreement with stateowned utility Water & Power Development Authority (WAPDA).

Pakistan State Oil Corporation will supply residual furnace oil. The facility will consist of two gas turbines and one steam turbine, and will be the third combined-cycle plant of similar size built by Siemens in Pakistan.

Siemens says it has already evaluated bids submitted in 1995 for nine tender packages (MEED 20:10:95). Contracts should be signed in April after World Bank approval and construction should start in another six months.

The mix of loans making up the $507 million package consists of: $140 million from the Private Sector Energy Development Fund (jointly financed by the World Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Japan); $33 million guaranteed by the German state insurance agency Hermes;

$40 million equivalent from an NDFCarranged local term syndication;

DM 20 million ($13.5 million) from Deutsche Investitions & Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), the German promoter of private sector ventures; $137 million from an ANZarranged offshore commercial syndication and $7 million from an onshore local working capital syndication; and $27 million from ANZ-syndicated letter of credit facilities as required by WAPDA.

The $137 million offshore commercial syndicate includes ANZ, Bayerische Landesbank Glrozentrale and Landesbank Hessen-Thuringen Girozentrale, both of Germany, Banque Indosuez and Societe Generale, both of France, and Union Bank of Switzerland.

ANZ is arranging finance for another private power plant in Punjab to be built by Enron Corporation of the US. That deal will involve construction of a 754-MW plant by early 1999 and may be worth about $800 million (MEED 16:2:96).