New Cairo Wastewater Treatment Plant

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The Egyptian Ministry of Housing, utilities and urban development through the New Urban Communities Authority awarded the project as Egypt's first public private partnership concession for the construction and operation of the water treatment plant in June 2009 via a competitive tender. Four other bidders participated: Veolia, Kharafi, Melito, and Befesa. Under the term of the agreement, the sponsor was responsible for the construction of the 250,000m3/d wastewater treatment plant within 2 years and for the operation of the plant the for the rest of the 20 year contract. The plant was expected to serve over 1 million people. The sponsors were Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas SA (FCC) (50%) and Orascom (50%). The 20 year BOT project reached financial close on 4th February 2010, with the signing of a direct agreement between the lenders and the project’s sponsor. The project cost was estimated to be US$475 million. The financing was based on a 70:30 debt-to-equity split. The club of four lenders – National Société Générale Bank (the facility agent), Commercial International Bank, Arab African International Bank and Ahli United Bank Egypt – will provide EGP600 million ($110 million) of 15-year debt at a fixed margin understood to be in excess of 300 basis points over the Central Bank of Egypt’s lending rate.