Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In May 2017, a syndicate of 12 banks — including the Bank of China (BOC) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — signed a $3 billion USD syndicated loan facility agreement with Airport Financing Company FZE (FINCO) — a special purpose vehicle that is jointly owned by the Government of Dubai's Department of Finance (DOF), Investment Corporation of Dubai, and Dubai Aviation City Corporation — to finance the Al Maktoum International Airport Expansion Project. The facility has two tranches: a $1.625 billion USD conventional loan and an AED 5.05 billion ($1.475 billion USD) Islamic loan or ijara. Both tranches had a maturity period of seven years. The interest rate of the loan was reportedly LIBOR plus 200 basis points (bps) (2%) for both tranches. As of June 30, 2020, $2.8 billion USD was outstanding under these facilities. The 12 participating banks in this syndicated loan were: BOC, ICBC, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC (ADCB), Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank PJSC (ADIB), Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC (DIB), Citibank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, J.P. Morgan, Noor Bank, and Standard Chartered. All banks, including ICBC and BOC, served as Mandated Lead Arrangers (MLA) and bookrunners. HSBC served as the financial adviser. The purpose of the project was to finance the expansion of its Dubai International Airport and Dubai World Central Airport, also known as Al Maktoum International Airport, in Jebel Ali, in preparation for the World Expo 2020. Al Maktoum International Airport was intended to become Dubai's primary airport and the home of Emirates Airlines, able to serve 145 million passengers annually by 2025. The $3 billion USD syndicated loan was planned to be the first financing phase for the entire $35 billion USD airport expansion, which was expected to take 12 years to complete and enable Al Maktoum International Airport to become the world's largest passenger and cargo airport in the world, capable of handling 220 million passengers and 12 million tons of cargo each year. The Lane Construction Corporation was one of the contractors on the project. In October 2018, the Al Maktoum International Airport Expansion Project was delayed in order for the project to be redesigned. At this time, none of the $3 billion USD had been used, and the second stage of financing which was expected to receive foreign credit agency support, had been delayed indefinitely. Later that month, the Government of Dubai announced that the first phase of the Al Maktoum International Airport Expansion Project, which was set to open by 2025, would open in 2030. Nonetheless, the project has been described as ‘underway’.
Staff comments
1. The individual contributions of the 12 lenders to the syndicated loan are unknown. For the time being, AidData has estimated the contributions of ICBC and BOC by assuming that each lender contributed an equal amount ($250,000,000 USD) to the loan syndicate. 2. The Government of Dubai’s obligations in relation to the financial obligations incurred by FINCO is limited to funding FINCO with the agreed passenger tariff each year, which commenced from 2017. Dubai's Department of Finance sourced source revenues from Dubai Airports to fund this passenger tariff to FINCO.