PFI Middle East & Africa Report 2013

The sponsor of Senegal’s first IPP, Nykomb’s Norland Suzor, talks about the importance of patience, political stability and what happens once you’ve got into the West African market. By Colin Leopold.

August 14 2013, 11.15pm, in an empty Paris except for a few late-night tourists, a group of sponsors, lenders, lawyers and government officials gathered at the Clifford Chance offices in Place Vendome. By Bertrand de la Borde, Nicolas Souche, Bendjin Kpeglo, Josiane Kwenda and Ted Boulou at the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

On August 23 2013, the six lenders to the DOE Peakers project made the first advances, marking the beginning of the construction of the two OCGT Peaking Power Plants, Avon and Dedisa, with a combined capacity of 1,005MW. By Vincent Perrot, vice-president, acquisition, investment and financial advisory, GDF Suez Energy Southern Africa and Cedric Girod, director, acquisition, investment and financial advisory, GDF Suez Asia.

The Bokpoort Concentrated Solar Power project in South Africa has broken new ground in technology with 9.3 hours of thermal storage, which is considered to be the highest among commercial CSP projects of comparable size. By Aditya Thakur, manager, acquisitions and project finance, and Prabashen Govender, project director, ACWA Power.

This case study describes the challenges that arose and solutions developed during the project financing of the Kwale sugar plantation, refinery and power plant in Kenya. By Martin Kavanagh, partner, Herbert Smith Freehills.

Almost five years to the day after the Shuweihat S2 power and water purchase agreement was executed, Ruwais Power Company, the project company set up to build, own and operate the Shuweihat S2 1,507MW power and 100m gallons a day water project based in Abu Dhabi, successfully issued a US$825m project bond to partially refinance its existing debt facilities and become the first true I(W)PP in the GCC to issue a tradable project bond in the capital markets. By Charlie Seymour, financial adviser, ADWEA.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) holds vast mineral wealth, yet many of the region’s currently identified deposits have remained undeveloped for decades. By Glen Ireland, partner, Latham & Watkins.

Emirates Aluminium is a major joint venture of the two largest Emirates of the UAE, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It is located in Taweelah in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi approximately halfway between the two capital cities on a 6km2 site containing two potlines, 756 reduction cells, a casthouse, and a power plant. By Markus von Haniel (adviser) and Natalia Bajerlajn (associate) in Mubadala’s structured finance and capital markets team.

In this article Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP - which acted as common legal counsel to all of the creditors in the main Sadara Integrated Chemicals project financing in addition to the lead managers and joint bookrunners on the sukuk issuance - provides insight into the notable features of this complex project. By Phillip Fletcher, John Dewar, Andrew Pendleton, Munib Hussain and Vicky Cox.