China Development Bank provides $493 million buyer’s credit loan for 632MW Mariveles Coal-Fired Power Plant Construction Project

Project narrative

In 2010, the Guangdong Branch of China Development Bank (CDB) and GNPower Mariveles Coal Plant Ltd. Co. (GMCP) — a special purpose vehicle and joint venture of Aboitiz Group (70% ownership stake) and Blackstone (30% ownership stake) — signed a $493 million buyer’s credit loan agreement for the 632MW Mariveles Coal-Fired Power Plant Construction Project. The loan carried the following borrowing terms: 11.5 year maturity and an interest rate of LIBOR (average 6-month LIBOR rate in 2010 = 0.519%) plus a 3% margin. Sinosure also provided buyer’s credit insurance. The proceeds of the loan were to be used by the borrower to partially finance a $580 million EPC contract that it signed with China National Electric Equipment Corporation (CNEEC) on January 23, 2009. CDB acted as the sole offshore lender, mandated lead arranger, and lead underwriter for the offshore term loan facility tranche. Citigroup, Standard Chartered Bank, BDO Unibank provided a $227 million onshore term loan facility tranche for the project. The $1 billion independent power project (IPP) was also financed with $280 million of equity contributions from Denham Capital Management, Power Partners, Sithe Global Power, and PMR Holding Corporation. The GNPower Mariveles was touted as the first power plant in the Philippines to be fully financed by the private sector without government support from the Philippines. The Government of the Philippines did not issue a sovereign guarantee in support of the onshore or offshore loan facility tranches. The purpose of the project was to construct a 632MW coal-fired power plant with two, 316MW units in the town of Diningin, the municipality of Mariveles, the province of Bataan, and the island of Luzon (exact locational coordinates: 14.424599, 120.540992). The power plant was designed to make generating capacity available and sell power to offtakers (industrial companies and distribution utilities) under long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs), as well as a portion into the Philippine wholesale electricity spot market. China National Electric Equipment Corporation (CNEEC) was the general EPC contractor responsible for implementation. However, China Communications Construction Group Co. Ltd. (CCCC) was also involved in implementation. On October 16, 2010, construction commenced. Construction was complete as of March 19, 2012 and the power plant went online in April 2013.