Sembcorp Industries has recently announced that its subsidiary Sembcorp North-West Power Company has successfully secured project financing for its Sirajganj power project in Bangladesh. International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, along with Singapore-based infrastructure project financing firm, Clifford Capital and CDC Group, the UK government’s development finance institution, have a share each of USD 103M in the total project finance debt. A portion of Clifford Capital’s tranche will benefit from political risk cover with IFC’s World Bank affiliate Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). MIGA will also provide a political risk guarantee to Sembcorp for its equity investment in the project. This marks IFC’s first investment with Sembcorp and IFC-MIGA’s first joint engagement in Bangladesh.
With the signing of financing agreements and targeted loan drawdown in January 2017, the construction work on the greenfield dual-fuel combined-cycle power plant in the Sirajganj district of Bangladesh has commenced. This build-own-operate project, with a contracted capacity of 414 megawatts, is estimated to cost approximately USD 412M. The power plant will be developed by Sembcorp North-West Power Company, a joint venture between Sembcorp Utilities and Bangladesh’s state-owned North-West Power Generation Company. The success of the project will demonstrate the profitability and sustainability of public and private-sector partnerships in Bangladesh’s power sector to international players and help attract additional capital to the sector.