Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 3 / Trend I.Khalilova /
The Azerbaijani Government completed the preliminary selection of commercial banks for financing the building of 800-megawatt thermal power plant (TPP) Cenub under the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) guarantee support, the government said today
Three bank's proposals including Societe General, BNP Paribas and City Bank are more attractive and they can participate in a consortium to finance the project
ADB financial specialists Martin Endelmann and Roland Pladet arrived in Baku to familiarize with the financial terms of the foreign banks and held consultations in the Finance Ministry and Azerenerji OJSC in January
The ADB is ready to provide guarantee assistance up to 220 million euro. Providing such guarantee would extend terms of the attracted loans at least by 13 years and will drop interest rates on loans as well. The loan will be issued for 13 years with privileged period for three year and the libor rate +1.55 in accordance with the banks' proposals.
At present the sides are waiting the final result of the selection process from Azerenerji
"This process will finish soon. The ADB began the ecological evaluation of the project in connection with the ADB's forthcoming visit to Azerbaijan in late February," the ADB Baku office said
Azerenerji's guarantee assistance will be the first experience for the ADB in the South Caucasus region
The project cost is evaluated in amount of 664.1 million euro. In 2010 the relevant agencies will allocate 117 million euro from total approved funds for the construction work. At present, 434 million euro is approved to receive for financing the project
Bayerische landesbank, Societe Generale and Credit Suisse banks allocated 300 million euro for the project financing. The banks issued loan under the state guarantee for 10 years. These resources will cover half cost of work associated with the construction
The Islamic Development Bank approved financing at 134 million euro Oct.20, 2009
The ADB has been cooperating with the Azerbaijani government since 1999
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