AIIB approves USD-210m loan for 490 MW of PV power in Egypt

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved a USD-210-million (EUR 177m) loan to finance 11 greenfield solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants with an aggregate capacity of 490 MW in Egypt.

A syndicate of lenders including the AIIB will provide long-term debt financing on a limited recourse project finance basis, the Beijing-based bank said in a news release today.

The projects - nine PV plants of 50 MWp each and two of 20 MWp will be developed as part of the second round of Egypt's Solar PV feed-in tariff programme. All of them will be located in the giant 1.8 GW Benban solar power complex in Egypt’s northern Aswan region.

Costs have been estimated at USD 70-75 million per project for the 50 MWp projects. AIIB is considering a senior loan of up to USD 17.5-19 million per project with IFC and other lenders co-financing for up to USD 41 million. The balance will be covered by equity.

For 20 MWp projects, costs have been estimated at USD 35-40 million per project with AIIB lending up to USD 12-14 million. Each project will be co-financed by IFC and other lenders for up to USD 18 million, and the balance will be covered by equity.

Chinese TBEA Xinjiang Sun Oasis has been selected as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) as well as operations and maintenance (O&M) contractor for three of the 50 MWp projects.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.843)

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