BNP Paribas’ Assiut and West Damietta power conversion loan facility won Euromoney Trade Finance’s Transaction of the Year Award. The USD 470 facility was to finance conversion of Assiut and West Damietta power stations into combined-cycle, the bank says, noting that “loan proceeds will be used to part-finance a commercial contract between EEHC and Orascom Construction / General Electric on EPC+Finance basis.” The MoU for the project was inked at the Egypt Economic Development Conference in March 2015. BNP Paribas was global coordinator and sole underwriter for the transaction, underpinning what a bank official said is “our commitment to support Egypt’s strategic national projects.” The project was one of 150 contestants for the award, which took into consideration “innovation, complexity, replicability and attractiveness of deal terms to the borrower.” Euromoney’s story on the project is here (pdf), while BNP Paribas’ slides summarizing the transaction are here (also in PDF).

Tags: