Saudi Electricity Company’s (SEC) $1.6bn financing raised in support of a new 2,640MW oil-fired power plant in Jeddah South, Saudi Arabia, was the largest global trade finance transaction closed in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The facility was the tenth-largest trade deal to be signed last year, according to the latest data from the UK’s Dealogic. It is also one of the largest deals backed by government export credit agencies (ECAs) to close in the Middle East to date.

The financing is being used to buy goods and services provided under a turnkey contract between SEC and the Korean EPC contractor Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), which has the responsibility for engineering, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning of the project.

The facility includes a direct loan from Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) and a commercial loan backed by the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-Sure).  

Commercial lenders on the facility are Japan’s Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and the UK bank HSBC, both which acted as joint structuring bank and mandated lead arrangers.

Two other Japanese banks Mizuho Bank and SMBC participated in the financing, as did Germany’s KfW IPEX and Deutsche Bank.

The total financing costs for the project are $2bn. A further $366m was raised via Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and two additional Japanese banks: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Mizuho Financial Group.

According to Dealogic, the biggest trade deal signed in 2013 in the Middle East was the ECA-backed portion of the $12.5bn project financing raised to support Sadara Chemical Company.  

The funds are supporting the construction of a chemical complex in Saudi Arabia’s Jubail Industrial City.

A total of $4bn was raised via a mixture of ECAs, local and international banks. The total debt financing also featured a direct loan from the US Export-Import Bank (US Exim) and a $2bn sukuk issuance.