RIYADH, 24 July 2007 — The Ministry of Water and Electricity (MOWE) has appointed professional advisers in connection with the pending tender (on a public private partnership basis) of Riyadh city waste water treatment plants.
The scope of this contract includes tendering of five existing wastewater treatment plants — management/O&M/concession, two under construction wastewater treatment plants — Concession, two new wastewater treatment plants at Al Hayer — Phase 2 (400,000 m3/day) and Al Kharj phase 3 (100,000 m3/day) — based on build own operate (BOT).
MoWE’s advisers are HSBC Saudi Arabia Ltd. as financial consultant (and coordinator of the advisory group), Clifford Chance LLP/Al Jaadan Law Firm as legal consultant, and Fitchner GmbH & Co. KG as technical consultant.
The project forms part of an overall reform and restructuring agenda within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with the objective of improving the performance and quality of the Kingdom’s wastewater sector through increasing privatization. The project is linked to the pending formation of the National Water Company (NWC), which will facilitate the privatization process and oversee most water and wastewater operations in the Kingdom.
Riyadh city has a population of circa 4.5 million and is principally served by wastewater treatment plants located in the Manfouha, Al-Kharj and Al-Hayer areas.
Following the finalization of the project tendering concept, MOWE will issue a “Request for Expressions of Interest” in respect of the project. This will be followed by a request for qualification (both of which will be issued in the third quarter 2007) with the request for proposals documents to be issued to pre-qualified parties in the fourth quarter 2007.
MoWE, together with HSBC, will provide a briefing on the project as part of MoWE’s road show on “Business opportunities in water and wastewater in Jeddah City,” which is being held at the Jeddah Hilton Hotel today.
