Saudi Arabia power plant reaches financial close

24 June 2010

Construction of PP11 facility to take three years

Financing for Saudi Electricity Company’s (SEC) independent power project (IPP), the PP11 facility in Riyadh, has closed.

The $2.1bn project is owned by SEC (50 per cent) along with Japan’s Sojitz Corporation (15 per cent), France’s GDF Suez (20 per cent) and the local Al-Jomaih Group (15 per cent).

Finance agreements for the 1,730MW project were signed on 15 June and closed on 23 June.

Around 70 per cent of the project costs are to be covered in debt, with the remaining 30 per cent provided in equity. The debt service cover ratio for the project is 1.2.

The project will get a $375m loan from US export credit agency US Exim, which has a tenor of 19 years and a $530 million international debt tranche, which was supplied by eight banks.

Financing included two Riyal-denominated tranches, both with a 20-year tenor.

The sponsors were advised by US firm Milbank, while the lenders are advised by US-based White & Case.

The US’ Citibank advised SEC in the transaction, while Muhannad al-Rasheed in association with Baker Botts provided legal advisory services and Germany’s Fichtner is technical consultant.

A MEED Subscription...

Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region’s best source of business information. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package.