Deals

Banks finance Costa Rican power plant

HSBC and KfW have arranged $235 million of financing for a new electricity generation plant in Costa Rica. The plant will be located at Garabito on the country’s Pacific coast and is expected to begin operations in 2011.

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HSBC Bank and KfW IPEX-Bank have jointly arranged the financing for a new electricity generation plant in Costa Rica.

Garabito power plant:
financing signed

The banks have provided $235 million of credit financing to Fideicomiso Planta Termica Garabito, a special purpose vehicle owned by Costa Rican state-owned energy group Intituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE). The financing is based on an operating lease structure with the banks providing funding through a 13-year fixed rate loan on a commercial interest reference rate basis.

The deal was signed in Frankfurt, with KfW IPEX-Bank's first vice president Peter Purkl and senior vice president Andreas Ufer understood to be working on the deal.

The loan is to finance a 200 MW diesel engine peak-load electricity generation plant, which will be located at Garabito on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. The plant is expected to begin operations in 2011.

The project forms part of ICE’s plan to boost the security of the country’s energy supply, with demand for electricity in Costa Rica currently growing at a rate of six percent per year. 78 percent of Costa Rica’s electricity is currently generated via hydroelectric power plants, although these are subject to seasonal limitations to a certain extent.