CCB, BoC, China CITIC Bank, and China Bohai Bank participate in $291.2 million syndicated loan for 900MW Bin Qasim Power Station (BQPS-III) Project

On September 13, 2021, Bin Qasim 3 CCGT — a special purpose vehicle and a wholly owned subsidiary of K-Electric — signed two syndicated loan agreements worth $414.4 million for the 900MW Bin Qasim Power Station (BQPS-III) Project: a $291.2 million Sinosure-covered syndicated loan tranche and a $123.2 million Euler Hermes-covered syndicated loan tranche. The Tianjin Branch of China Bohai Bank Co., Ltd., the Harbin Branch of China Citic Bank Corporation Limited, the Heilongjiang Branch of China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB Heilongjiang), the Shanghai Branch of Bank of China, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and Standard Chartered participated in the $291.2 million Sinosure-covered syndicated loan tranche. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered, and AKA Ausfuhrkredit-Gesellschaft mbH participated in the $123.3 million Eules Hermes-covered syndicated loan tranche. Both loan tranches carry 13-year maturities. The Sinosure-covered syndicated loan tranche carries an interest rate of LIBOR plus an unknown margin. The purpose of the project is to construct a combined cycle power plant with two 450 MW power generation units — known as the 900 MW Bin Qasim Power Station (BQPS-3) — in Karachi. Siemens AG and Harbin Electric International Company are the contractors responsible for project implementation. K-Electric signed project (EPC) contracts with Siemens AG and Harbin Electric International in October 2019. A Notice to Proceed (NTP) was issued to the EPC contractors in December 2019. Then, on March 14, 2022, BQPS-III successfully completed the firing of the first 450 MW power generation unit.

Additional details

1. K-Electric is jointly owned by The Abraaj Group [31%]; Government of Pakistan [26%]; K-Electric Employees [10%]; Al Jomaih Power Limited [20%]; and Denham Investment Limited [13%]. 2. The individual contributions of the banks that participated in the $291.2 million syndicated loan tranche are unknown. For the time being, AidData assumes equal contributions ($41.6 million) across all 7 members of the syndicate, which implies that the total financial commitment from Chinese state-owned banks was $166.4 million. 3. This project is also known as the 900 MW BQPS-III Project.

Number of official sources

11

Number of total sources

19