ICBC contributes $20 million to syndicated debt financing package for 50MW Rising Sun Energy Project

ICBC contributes $20 million to syndicated debt financing package for 50MW Rising Sun Energy Project On October 29, 2017, Rising Sun Energy S.A.E. — a special purpose vehicle and joint venture of Acciona Energia Global [38% ownership stake], ENARA Bahrain (a consortium consisting of Swicorp, KCC Corporation and the Shoaibi Holdings) [38% ownership stake], and TBEA Xinjiang SunOasisCo B.V. [24% ownership stake] — signed a syndicated debt financing package with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), and Europe Arab Bank (EAB) for the 50MW Rising Sun Energy Project.

The participants in the syndicate accepted a streamlined, standardized, one-size-fits all, financing package with limited negotiation room in exchange for speed, certainty of execution and greatly reduced transaction costs by sharing data, pooling a single set of lender’s advisors, agents and account banks.

The IFC provided a $12 million A loan and a $3.3 million C loan. EAB provided a $2 million B loan.

AIIB provided a $15.5 million parallel loan. The borrower purchased a credit insurance policy from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).

The purpose of the $66 million project was to construct a 50MW photovoltaic (PV) plant within Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Agency (NREA)’s 37.2 km2 Benban 1.8 GW PV solar park.

The project includes\d the construction by EETC of an approximately 1 km underground 22 kV transmission line connecting the project to substation 2 (SS2), the nearest of four EETC high voltage substations, (on the eastern corner of the Benban PV solar park).

The underground transmission line right-of-way was expected to follow the route of internal Benban PV solar park roads and to be installed by EETC.

Substation SS2 was expected to be initially connected to the 220 kV high voltage overhead line located approximately 12 km east of the Benban PV solar park, until upgrades were made to the high voltage line.

An additional 180 km double circuit 500 kV transmission line was to be constructed north of the site, to evacuate the energy from the solar park.

The project occupies a 97-hectare plot (SBN 28-4) located in the fourth row within the southern area of the Benban PV solar park. The power produced by SunRise Energy S.A.E. was to be sold to EETC under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

IFC’s appraisal of the project consisted of two site visits to the Benban PV solar park on December 12, 2015 and on March 22, 2017; appraisal meetings in Cairo, Egypt from March 19-21, 2017; and finally a review of environmental and social (E&S) aspects through on-site interviews and review of ESHS documents provided.

All meetings took place with the project sponsors and the EPC contractor. The EIA was expected to be submitted by end of May 2017.

The findings of the Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) non-technical summary commissioned by NREA for the Benban 1.8 GW PV Solar Park was issued in December 2015.

It was also considered in the IFC review as were the conditions attached to this approval of the SESA on the March 17, 2016 by the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA).

TBEA Xinjiang SunOasis served as the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) and Operations and Maintenance (O&M) contractor. On February 26, 2019, the complex was completed after 11 months of construction.