KARACHI: K-Electric has signed $50 million loan agreements with Standard Chartered which is supported by GuarantCo to undertake upgradation of power infrastructure including the installation of theft-resistant Aerial Bundled Cable (ABC) as well as smart grid solutions.
The financing documents were signed by KE CEO Moonis Alvi, KE Head of Treasury Rizwan Pesnani, SC CEO Shazad Dada and GuarantCo CEO Lasitha Perera.
This investment will directly benefit the citizens of Karachi and will further improve the reliability of KE’s network. The dual currency 5.5-year corporate term loan will be split equally into two tranches denominated in Pakistan Rupees (PKR) and US Dollars (USD) to be given by Standard Chartered.
GuarantCo is the guarantor for the transaction with a partial guarantee to support the loan facility. Moreover, GuarantCo, through the PIDG Technical Assistance Facility, is providing a $185,000 grant to co-finance the awareness and capacity building workshops to reduce safety risks and technical/non-technical losses in K-Electric’s distribution/transmission network.
According to CEO Moonis Alvi, “This collaboration with Standard Chartered and GuarantCo is yet another step in a series of investment initiatives to further strengthen the city’s power infrastructure. So far KE has installed theft-resistant Aerial Bundled Cable (ABC) on nearly 7,500 PMTs across the city and this collaboration will help us accelerate the roll out of ABC to further reduce losses and theft in line with our vision of a load-shed free Karachi. We are also thankful to GuarantCo for the announcement of grant which is in line with our vision of empowering communities.”
