Carbon Holdings to reach financial close on TPC before year’s end, in talks with various equity investors over funding

Carbon Holdings expects to reach financial close on its USD 10.9 bn Tahrir Petrochemicals Complex (TPC) by the end of the year, Managing Director for Environment and Sustainability, Mohamed Hassan, tells Bloomberg in an interview. The project is being financed by a USD 5.4 bn debt package through institutions such as UK Export Finance, Germany’s Euler Hermes, and the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation, but Carbon Holdings is currently in “serious talks with other equity investors,” according to Hassan, who refused to name names, but said that a few other export credit agencies showed “interest in supporting the project and this might be considered.” Officials had said earlier this month that a group of Chinese lenders had made as much as USD 3.1 bn available as backup funding for the project, adding that the group should reach financial close in 3Q2018.