The owners of the Shuweihat 2 power and water plant in Abu Dhabi are planning to issue the $825m bond in the first half of the year as part of an almost $2bn refinancing of project finance debt.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (Jbic), which has an outstanding $1bn loan to the project, is set to approve the terms of the deal in late February. The banks in a $950m loan to the project have already approved the refinancing terms, which will reduce the size of that tranche to about $600m.

The owners of the Shuweihat 2 plant include Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (Adwea), Japan’s Marubeni and France’s GDF Suez.

Speaking at the MEED Middle East Project Finance 2013 conference, Charlie Seymour, financial adviser at Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (Adwea), said the utility was preparing to refinance some more of its projects once the Shuweihat 2 refinancing is completed.