ICBC contributes $20 million to syndicated debt financing package for 50MW SunRise Energy Project

Project narrative

On October 29, 2017, SunRise Energy S.A.E. — a special purpose vehicle and joint venture of Acciona Energia Global [38% ownership stake], ENARA Bahrain (a consortium consisting of Swicorp, KCC Corporation and the Shoaibi Holdings) [38% ownership stake], and TBEA Xinjiang SunOasisCo B.V. [24% ownership stake] — signed a syndicated debt financing package with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), and Europe Arab Bank (EAB) for the 50MW SunRise Energy Project. The participants in the syndicate accepted a streamlined, standardized, one-size-fits all, financing package with limited negotiation room in exchange for speed, certainty of execution and greatly reduced transaction costs by sharing data, pooling a single set of lender’s advisors, agents and account banks. The IFC provided a $12 million A loan and a $3.3 million C loan. EAB provided a $2 million B loan. ICBC provided a $20 million B loan (with an 18-year maturity and an unknown interest rate and grace period). AIIB provided a $15.5 million parallel loan. The borrower purchased a credit insurance policy from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). The purpose of the $66 million project was to construct a 50MW photovoltaic (PV) plant within Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Agency (NREA)’s 37.2 km2 Benban 1.8 GW PV solar park. The project site occupies a 97-hectare plot (SBN 18-3) located in the third row within the central area of the Benban PV solar park. The plot was previously being developed by another developer (Al Siraj Solar SAE) under Round 1 of the FiT Scheme and the sponsors have since acquired the plot for development as part of Round 2. The power produced by SunRise Energy S.A.E. was to be sold to EETC under a 25-year power purchase agreement. IFC’s appraisal of the project consisted of two site visits to the Benban PV solar park on December 12, 2015 and on March 22, 2017; appraisal meetings in Cairo, Egypt from March 19-21, 2017; and finally a review of environmental and social (E&S) aspects through on-site interviews and review of ESHS documents provided. All meetings took place with the project sponsors and the EPC contractor. The EIA was expected to be submitted by end of May 2017. The findings of the Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) non-technical summary commissioned by NREA for the Benban 1.8 GW PV Solar Park was issued in December 2015. It was also considered in the IFC review as were the conditions attached to this approval of the SESA on the March 17, 2016 by the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA). TBEA Xinjiang SunOasis served as the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) and Operations and Maintenance (O&M) contractor. On February 26, 2019, the complex was completed after 11 months of construction.