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Thursday, April 25, 2024 19:43 GMT
The National Central Cooling Company (Tabreed), a leading district cooling developer in the UAE, has announced the successful syndication of a landmark term-loan facility, which was pre-funded by HSBC Bank Middle East in March as part of its acquisition funding plan for a 80% stake in Emaar Properties' Downtown Dubai district cooling business.The US$692 million loan has a tenor of five years (until March 2025) and was structured as a multi-tranche syndicated facility with Islamic and conventional tranches.In addition to financing the acquisition of Tabreed’s stake in the Downtown Dubai district cooling business, the facility will also support the development of a new state-of-the-art district cooling plant in Downtown Dubai. The cooling scheme currently provides 148,471 refrigeration tons (RT) of contracted capacity through a network that distributes chilled water produced in three already existing interconnected district cooling plants.CEO Bader Al Lamki said: "The successful syndication of this loan facility underscores Tabreed’s strong business fundamentals, the solid relationships with our key partnering banks and the confidence the financial markets have in our expansion projects, both in Dubai and across the region."HSBC and ADIB acted as joint underwriters, bookrunners, initial mandated lead arrangers as well as Global Facility Agent and Investment Agent, respectively for the facility. The facility saw participation from nine banks, with over 40% of the deal subscribed to by regional and international banks with strong anchorage by the UAE banking market. Emirates NBD Capital Limited and Samba acted as mandated lead arrangers on the facility.