Unique Meghnaghat Power Limited (UMPL), a joint venture of Unique Hotel & Resorts PLC (UHRL), commenced its commercial operation on January 20 this year.
As per the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will purchaseelectricity from the plant for 22 years.
Unique Hotel & Resorts PLC holds a 37.24 per cent share of Unique Meghnaghat Power Limited (UMPL), according to a company disclosure posted on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) on Tuesday.
UMPL has constructed a 584MW combined cycle gas-fired power plant at Sonargaon inNarayanganj. UMPL is a consortium of Strategic Finance Ltd (SFL), Unique Hotels & Resorts PLC (UHRL) and Nebras Power Investment Management BV (Nebras Power).
Earlier, UMPL achieved financial close for $463 million long-term project financing from foreign lenders on December 13, and got the first disbursement of $360 million on December 18 last year.
The estimated project cost is $612 million which is being financed at 75:25 debt-equity ratio. But 24 per cent of this equity has been invested by Nebras Power as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
The debt portion is being financed through multi-sourced financing package, including an ECA covered tranche from Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) with cover from Swiss Export Risk Insurance (SERV) as well as three DFI tranches, from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) and OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID).
Out of $360 million first disbursement, the SCB as ECA backed lenders disbursed $240.24 million and AIIB, DEG & OFID as DFI lenders disbursed $119.76 million.
This is the largest IPP project financing and private infrastructure project financing to have closed in the past few years in Bangladesh.
This is particularly remarkable given this has been achieved amid stressed FX situation in Bangladesh and financial volatility in the global market due to post-Covid pandemic recovery and global political turmoil.
