The NCB is also acting as the issuing bank, facility agent and security agent.
Arabian Bemco’s CEO Henry Sarkissian, NCB’s Vice President and Chief Corporate Banker Mansour A. Al-Saghayer as well as BSF’s Regional Corporate Banking Group Head Mutasim N. Mufti jointly signed the deal at the Qasr Al-Sharq hotel.
The deal follows the award of a contract to the consortium, led by Arabian Bemco with Doosan Heavy Industries, to convert the Qurayyah Power Plant from an open cycle process to one of a combined cycle.
Under the agreement, the consortium will build additional capacity for the existing plant, with work in its final stages. Total capacity will be raised from 2,000 MW to 3,200 MW.
Sarkissian expressed his appreciation for the confidence of the banks. “This reflects their confidence in Bemco’s performance abilities, and its shareholders and management. It also demonstrates the financial strength and commitment of Arabian Bemco’s partners and management to meet its obligations toward the lenders and the clients,” he said.
The company, Sarkisian added, intends to expand its activities soon to include the rest of the GCC, Africa and Eastern countries not only in the construction sector, but also in the area of investment and development of infrastructure projects.
“Arabian Bemco’s partners have also expressed their intention to convert part of its ownership into a public company soon,” he said.
Ghassan Y. Basna, Arabian Bemco’s vice president for finance, told Arab News that the financing for Qurayyah Power Plant is for the second phase of work.
The contract from the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) for the plant was awarded on Sept. 16, 2009. It consists of five power blocks to be completed between May 2012 and January 2013. The SEC has recently raised SR7 billion through the issuance of sukuks to fund the project, he added.
