Chapter 4

Azito, Côte d’Ivoire

Type of project

288 MW power plant and 225 kV transmission system.

Country

Côte d’Ivoire.

Distinctive features

• First major private infrastructure project in sub-Saharan Africa (South Africa
  excluded) to be financed with private commercial bank term loans.


• First power project in the region financed on a non-recourse basis.


• Model for similar projects in the region.


• First project financing with a guarantee from the International Development
  Agency (IDA).


• Largest thermal power plant in West Africa.


• Second largest independent power project in Côte d’Ivoire.


• Successful project financing requiring involvement of multilateral agencies.

Description of financing

The total project cost of US$223 million was financed in 1999 from the following

sources:

• US$44 million in sponsors’ equity;


• US$32 million as an A loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC);


• US$30 million as a B loan from the IFC;


• US$30 million from commercial banks with an IDA guarantee;


• US$47 million from the Commonwealth Development and bilateral agencies;


• US$22 million in subordinated debt; and


• US$18 million in cash from operations.
  Debt is repayable over 12 years. Pricing on the commercial bank portion, not made
  public, was reportedly about 300 basis points (bps) over the London interbank offered
  rate (Libor). To protect part of the project debt against interest rate volatility, the IFC
  provided a US$32 million interest rate swap to convert its exposure from a floating rate
  to a fixed rate.