Eight foreign banks and two local banks underwrote the 22-year deal that was signed recently, bankers involved in the transaction said.
France’s Total, Spain’s Abengoa and Abu Dhabi-based Masdar plan to build a $600 million plant, named Shams 1, which will have a 100 megawatt capacity and would qualify for carbon credits under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
Masdar has a 60 percent stake in its flagship project, while the European partners hold 20 percent each.
“There was high interest from several banks with big tickets due to the project’s attractiveness,” said one banker, adding that the project is structured as a typical independent power project (IPP) and with a power purchase agreement with Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity (ADWEC) in place.
Abu Dhabi aims to obtain 7 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.
National Bank of Abu Dhabi underwrote $68 million and Union National Bank $41 million of the financing, bankers said.
“The financing was oversubscribed and pricing was competitive,” said another banker.
Japan’s Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Sumitomo, France’s Natixis and Societe Generale and Germany’s KfW and West LB have each underwritten $68 million.
Masdar delayed a planned $2.2 billion hydrogen power project and scrapped a solar module manufacturing facility in Abu Dhabi.
