RIYADH: A consortium of electricity companies led by Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power has completed refinancing of more than $1.825 billion in debt for its Rabigh 1 power project, ACWA Power said on Wednesday.
The consortium, which includes state-run Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), runs the 1240 MW fuel oil-fired plant on the western coast of Saudi Arabia. The refinancing consists of a conventional international tranche and two Islamic riyal-denominated parts, it said in a statement.
A dollar-denominated portion worth more than $300 million was provided by a group of Korean insurance companies, including Samsung Life and Dongbu Insurance/Hyundai Asset Management, as well as banks including Natixis, Credit Agricole and Standard Chartered.
Saudi’s Alinma Bank and Al Rajhi Bank provided a riyal-denominated sharia-compliant tranche of 3.2 billion riyals ($850 million). A separate 2.4 billion riyal loan came from National Commercial Bank, Banque Saudi Fransi, Arab National Bank, Samba Financial Group and Saudi British Bank (SABB).
Reuters reported in December that Rabigh Electricity Company, the special purpose vehicle which controls the project, was in talks with banks to raise a loan worth up to $2 billion to replace the capital invested to construct the plant.
The Rabigh 1 plant cost $2.5 billion to build and has been in full commercial operation since 2013. It was the first in the kingdom where the contract to build and operate the project was awarded in an open tender process by SEC, which promised to purchase all power produced by the plant for a period of 20 years.
