ICBC contributes $60 million to syndicated loan for 3 solar power plants in Benban Solar Park

On October 30, 2017, a set of project companies (special purpose vehicles) signed a $653 million (fully non-recourse) syndicated debt package with a group of 10 lenders for the 800MW Nubian Suns Project. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) was the lead arranger of the syndicated loan and it contributed $202 million to the $823 million project, which was financed according to a 75:25 debt-to-equity ratio. AIIB (multilateral) contributed $147 million. AfDB (multilateral) contributed $38 million. CDC (UK) contributed $97 million. Finnfund (Finland) contributed $20 million. Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank (OeEB) (Austria) contributed $20 million. Europe Arab Bank (UK) contributed $30 million. Arab Bank of Bahrain contributed $22 million. Green for Growth Fund (Germany) contributed $20 million. ICBC (China) contributed $60 million. It contributed $20 million to three different project companies responsible for three separate, 50 MW solar power plants: SunRise Energy, Rising Sun Energy, and Al Subh Solar Power. The participants in the loan 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 maturity length of the loan was 18 years. The interest rate that applied to ICBC’s debt contribution is unknown. However, it is known that IFC arranged a mix of A, B and C loans – the latter of which is similar to mezzanine, being subordinate to the senior debt and carrying a higher margin. It is also known that ICBC contributed to the B loan. The financing package, approved under Egypt's solar feed-in tariff program, was supported by a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC). The purpose of the project was to develop, construct and commission three Nubian Suns solar photovoltaic (PV) plants — with aggregate power generation capacity of 150 MW (186 MWp peak capacity) — in Beban Solar Park (محطة بنبان للطاقة الشمسية) within Aswan Governorate. Upon completion, the project was expected to provide clean, cost-effective power to over 350,000 residential customers and generate up to 6,000 jobs during construction. TBEA Solar Co. Ltd. was the contractor responsible for the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts and the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the 3 power plants. On February 26, 2019, the complex was completed after 11 months of construction.

Additional details

This project is also known as the Nubian Suns Renewable Energy Financing Program and the Nubian Suns FIT Financing Programme. It should not be confused with Project ID#57965, which captures a $70,000,000 contribution by ICBC to a $140,000,000 syndicated loan with Alcom Energy JSC for the construction of three additional solar photovoltaic power plants in the Benban Solar Park. SunRise Energy and Rising Sun Energy are owned by Acciona Energia Global – 38%; Enara Bahrain – 38% (the investment vehicle of Swicorp, KCC Corporation and the Shoaibi Group); and TBEA Xinjiang SunOasisCo – 24%. Al Subh Solar Power is owned by Acciona Energia – 50% and ENARA – 50%.

Number of official sources

5

Number of total sources

18