Bank Saudi Fransi (BSF) and National Commercial Bank (NCB), both mandated lead arrangers,
concluded the signing of a S.R2.14 billion contract financing facility on Tuesday for Arabian Bemco Contracting Co. Ltd., a leading regional EPC Contractor for power plants, industrial plants, and civil projects.
The NCB is also acting as the issuing bank, facility agent, and security agent.
Bemco CEO, Mr. Henry Sarkissian, NCB Vice President and Chief Corporate Banker, Mr. Mansour A. Al-Saghayer as well as BSF Regional Corporate Banking Group Head, Mr. 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 to a combined cycle power generation plant.
Under the agreement, the consortium will build additional capacity of 1,200 MW for the existing 2,000 MW plant, with work in its final stages, and will result in a total output of 3,200 MW.
Mr. 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 Bemco to meet its obligations toward the lenders and the clients”
The company, Mr. Sarkissian added, intends to expand its activities in the near future 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.
“Bemco shareholders have also expressed their intention to convert part of its ownership into a public company soon,” he said.
Mr. Ghassan Y. Basna, Bemco Vice President of Finance, explains 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 Sep 16, 2009. It consists of five blocks to be completed between May 2012 and January 2013. SEC has recently raised S.R 7 billion through the issuance of sukuks to fund the project, he added.