Unique Meghnaghat Power Limited (UMPL) recently got $360 million as the first disbursement of a $463 million loan agreement with foreign lenders for the construction of a combined cycle gas-fired power plant at Sonargaon in Narayanganj.

The estimated project cost for the 584-megawatt power plant is $612 million, being financed at 75:25 debt-equity ratio, according to a press release.

The debt portion is being financed through a multi-sourced financing package, including an Export Credit Agency (ECA) covered tranche from Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), Swiss Export Risk Insurance as well as Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) and Opec Fund for International Development (OFID).

Of the $360 million first instalment, the SCB as an ECA backed lender disbursed $240.24 million and the AIIB, DEG and OFID disbursed $119.76 million, the statement said referring to the disbursement on December 18.

Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat, managing director of UMPL, said this financing manifests the confidence of lead global development financing institutions and banks on the economic development of Bangladesh.

Financial closing of $463 million in foreign loan has opened the avenue for future investments in Bangladesh for similar sets of foreign lenders.

He said UMPL has implemented the project with the most efficient gas turbine in South Asia, which has the highest efficiency of more than 62 percent at site condition.

"In a time of scarcity of natural gas, the commercial operation of this project will ensure the optimum utilisation of gas," Sarafat added.

Anupam Hayat, chief financial officer of UMPL, said they are very happy to announce the financial closure and first disbursement of the total $463 million loan.

UMPL is a consortium of Strategic Finance Ltd, Unique Hotels and Resorts and Nebras Power Investment Management BV.

The construction and commissioning of the project has already been completed and the project is ready for commercial operation, the press release said.