The owners of the Shuweihat 2 power plant in Abu Dhabi are expected to finally launch the long-delayed $800m project bond to refinance part of the scheme’s $2bn debt before the end of June.

The bond issue has been planned since September last year, but has suffered repeated delays in the process of getting approvals from other lenders for the terms of the refinancing. It has also taken a lot of work to structure the bond so it will be attractive to debt investors outside the Middle East.

“It has taken a lot of work to align the interests of existing parties with those of prospective bond investors who generally are not used to investing in Middle East infrastructure,” says one source close to the deal.

It has been almost a year since the Shuweihat 2 owners, which include Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa), Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (Adwea), Japan’s Marubeni and France’s GDF Suez, first started to approach banks about refinance the existing debt.

The refinancing will replace a $1bn loan from Japan Bank for International Cooperation (Jbic) and a $950m bank tranche both put in place in October 2009 with a new $600m bank tranche, a Jbic loan of around the same size, and a new $800m bond.

Banks agreed to the new terms, which lower the pricing on the debt from peaking at 350 basis points above the London interbank offered rate (Libor) to a high of 250 basis points, last October. When the Shuweihat 2 deal was originally signed, it was one of the most expensive power sector financings done in the emirate as a result of the financial crisis.