Co-developers GE Energy Financial Services (GE EFS) and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation along with Shikoku Electric Power Company and Sharjah Asset Management, the investment arm of the government of Sharjah, have closed financing from private financial institutions and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Japan’s export credit agency, for GE’s flagship 1.8 gigawatts power project, Hamriyah Independent Power Company in Sharjah. Securing financing for the project will lead to the first independent combined cycle power project in the emirate, which is expected to be the most efficient power plant in the Middle East’s utilities sector on completion.
Together, a consortium of banks and JBIC will co-finance the project for a total private-public co-financing amount of approximately $1 billion.
GE EFS worked with multiple private financial institutions including Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Limited, Norinchukin Bank, Société Générale S.A., Standard Chartered Bank and KfW-IPEX to secure financing, which will be partly insured by Nippon Export and Investment Insurance, a Japanese insurance corporation owned by the Japanese government.
Susan Flanagan, GE EFS global power leader, said: “Sourcing financing from the public and private sectors to fund Sharjah’s first independent combined-cycle power plant demonstrates the region’s attractiveness for foreign investment and GE’s ability to connect global capital to significant infrastructure projects.”
Norihiko Nonaka, general manager of Global Power Infrastructure Business Division, Sumitomo Corporation, said: “Sumitomo remains committed to supporting the continuing economic growth in the UAE through the delivery of reliable, cost-effective, clean and sustainable power from both our existing and new power infrastructure.”
