China Eximbank contributes to $464 million syndicated export credit facility for 747MW Guddu Combined Cycle Project

Project narrative

On December 23, 2011, the Central Power Generation Company Limited (CPGCL) — a special purpose vehicle that is also known as GENCO-II — signed a $464,058,000 syndicated export credit facility agreement with the Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank), Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Corporation Limited (HSBC), and the HSBC Bank Middle East Limited for the 747 MW Guddu Combined Cycle Project. The proceeds of the loan were to be used by the borrower to partially finance a $545.98 million EPC contract between CPGCL and Harbin Electric International Company Ltd (formerly Harbin Power Engineering Co. Ltd.), which was signed on September 19, 2009. The borrowing terms of the loan included a maturity of 12 years, a grace period of 4.083 years, and an interest rate of 6-month LIBOR plus a 2.4% margin. Sinosure provided credit insurance for the syndicated export credit facility agreement. The total cost of the Sinosure insurance policy (to the borrower) was PKR 3.873 billion. The loan went into effect on October 19, 2012. The first loan disbursement took place on October 30, 2012. Additional loan disbursements of $37.641 million and $33.608 million took place on August 21, 2015 and September 17, 2015, respectively. The borrower was responsible for repaying the lender in equal, semi-annual installments on January 21 and July 21 of each year, with the first repayment due on January 21, 2016. The purpose of the project was to install two 243 MW gas turbines, two heat recovery system generators (HRSGs), and one 261 MW steam turbine unit. Harbin Power Engineering (HPE) installed size 9-FA gas turbines from General Electric (GE) USA. The 747 MW Guddu Combined Cycle Power Plant officially commenced on December 23, 2011. It reached its commercial operation date (COD) on December 17, 2014. Central Power Generation Company Limited was incorporated on October 26, 1998 to take over all properties, rights, assets, obligations and liabilities of the thermal power plant located in the town of Guddu within Kashmore district and Sindh province, which was previously owned and operated by Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA). Central Power Generation Company Limited also inherited the Sukkur and Quetta power stations. It commenced its commercial operations on March 1, 1999, and it was granted a generation license (number GL/02/2002) by Pakistan’s National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on July 1, 2002, for a term of 15 years (i.e. until June 30, 2017), which was later modified to add the new 747 MW Guddu Combined Cycle Power Plant on April 26, 2013.