Facility agreements were signed in Abu Dhabi on 2 July by a 14-strong group of mandated lead arrangers and Arabian Power Companyfor the five-tranche financing. Arabian Power Company is a joint venture between Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (ADWEA), the UK's International Power, Tokyo Electric Power Companyand Mitsui & Company, both of Japan (MEED 4:7:03).

The $855 million loan is being lead arranged by 13 of the mandated lead arrangers, the exception being Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank. The step-up pricing on the 20-year facility has been set at 100 basis points (bp) over Libor from signing until project completion date, 100 bp from project completion to year 7, 115 bp for years 8-10, 130 bp for years 11-13, 155 bp for years 14-16 and 165 bp for years 17-20.

'The fact that you have 13 banks at the top shows that the pricing is fairly attractive. But it is really where you would expect it and reflects more or less recent IWPP deals in Abu Dhabi,' says another banker.

The global co-ordinator is the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, which is also acting as the global syndication agent, global facility agent and documentation agent. HSBCis the other global syndication agent and is acting as the technical and insurance bank. The regional syndication agent is Gulf International Bank (GIB).

There are two other conventional financed loans in the facility. The larger of the two is a $232 million, five-year loan, which is being arranged by GIB and National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD). They have been joined by a group of seven lead arrangers, comprising Abu Dhabi Investment Company, Arab Bank, Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp), Banque Saudi Fransi, Mashreqbank, National Bank of Bahrainand National Bank of Dubai. The other facility, a five-year $150 million equity bridge, is being lead arranged by NBAD.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank is lead arranging the two Islamic tranches - a $250 million, 20-year, facility and a five-year equity bridge facility worth $290.5 million.

The Umm al-Nar project involves Arabian Power acquiring the existing 850-MW, 162 million-gallon-a-day (g/d) station and adding 1,550 MW and 25 million g/d of new capacity. Much of the existing capacity will be decommissioned.