Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In late August 2023, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of five lenders — including the Bank of China (BOC) — entered into a $390 million USD syndicated loan agreement with Ras Girtas Power Company Q.P.S.C. — a Qatar-incorporated special purpose vehicle (SPV) and joint venture of Qatari majority state-owned utility Qatar Electricity & Water Company Q.P.S.C (QEWC) (45.0% equity stake), French multinational utility Engie S.A (20.0% equity stake), Qatari state-owned oil company QatarEnergy (15.0% equity stake), Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (10.0% equity stake), Japanese electric utility JERA Co., Inc. (5.0% equity stake), and Japanese electric utility Shikoku Electric Power Company, Inc. (5.0% equity stake) — for the Ras Laffan C Independent Water and Power Plant (IWPP) 2023 Refinancing Project. This loan carried a maturity period of 13 years (until the end of the project power and water purchase agreement in 2036) and a variable interest rate rate based on SOFR plus a margin reportedly between 180 basis points (bps) and 200 bps. The lending syndicated consisted of BOC, KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH, National Bank of Kuwait S.A.K. (NBK), SBI Shinsei Bank, and Norinchukin Bank; MUFG Bank, Ltd. served as New Facility Agent, though did not contribute funds to the syndicate. The syndicate apparently had begun by July 6, 2023. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to partly refinance the existing and residual export credit agency (ECA) and commercial project finances used for the Ras Laffan C IWPP, a natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant and water desalination plant with a power capacity of 2,730 MW and a water capacity of some 63 million Imperial gallons per day (MIGD) located in the Ras Laffan Industrial City, Zone 75, Al Khor. Ras Laffan C is the largest power and water plant in Qatar.
Staff comments
1. The individual contributions of the five lenders to this $390 million USD syndicated loan are unknown. Therefore, to estimate BOC's contribution, AidData assumes that each lender contributed equally ($78,000,000 USD) to the loan syndicate. 2. As the interest rate margin was reported to be between 1.80% to 2.00%, AidData has coded the margin as the midpoint between those two figures, 1.90%. 3. Ras Laffan C is also known as the Ras Qartas Energy Plant, the Ras Laffan C Gas Thermal IWPP Project, and the Ras Laffan C Power and Water Project.