Bids for Umm Al Nar project to be placed shortly

International banks are once again playing a leading role in backing the bidders for Abu Dhabi's Umm Al Nar independent water and power project.

The shortlisted bidders are preparing to submit bids by the third week of September, officials said.

ANZ Investment Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Sumitomo Mutsui Banking Corporation, West LB and ING are the banks supporting the joint bid of UK's International Power, Japan's Mitsui & Co and Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Similarly, Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole Indosuez and Societe Generale are backing the joint bid of Belgium's Tractabel and Italy's Enel Power.

A group of banks led by ABN Amro, Citibank, Credit Lyonnais and others are backing France's TotalFinaElf.

The other bidders shortlisted by Adwea are Electricity De France, Korea Electric Power Co, AES Corp of the U.S., Japan's Marubeni Corp and two German companies, RWE and Steag.

"The shortlisted bidders have to submit their bids by September 22. Some companies have already formed a bidding consortia with some banks to back them. Other companies may go alone," a senior Adwea official said.

Regional and local banks, as before, are likely to come in as arrangers and sub-arrangers.

After the competitive process, the selected developer will own 40 per cent of a Special Purpose Vehicle to purchase, develop, build, own, operate and maintain the Umm Al Nar water and power complex. The remaining equity will be held directly or indirectly by Adwea.

The Umm Al Nar complex, east of Abu Dhabi, currently has power and desalination capacity of some 1100 MW and 100 million gallons per day (mgpd) respectively.

A further 62.5 mgpd of desalination capacity is under construction at the complex which is expected to be commissioned before the execution of project agreements and the commercial close of the project.

The project will comprise the purchase of the new 62.5 mgpd desalination capacity and two recently commissioned units of roughly 7 mgpd with associated infrastructure and the development, financing and construction of at least 1000 MW of new net electricity generating capacity and potentially additional water generation capacity.

"Commissioning of the first of the new power units should be completed by summer 2005 and the project should be fully operational by summer 2006," said the Adwea official.

Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), Fitchner and White & Case are acting as advisors for the project.