Says syndicated and bilateral loans of AED 793 million reaffirms success of its business model

Emirates District Cooling (Emicool) has announced the successful signing conclusion of AED 793 million for a 10-year Islamic refinancing structured term loan in Dubai. This was negotiated with the existing seven banks that had sanctioned a bridge loan in 2008, which matured in May 2011, the announcement added.

According to Emicool, Mashreq Al-Islami, Islamic Banking Division of Mashreq was the Mandated Lead Arranger and the coordinating bank for the transaction. In addition, it was also the Security and Facility Agent, with other participating banks being, Dubai Islamic Bank, Union National Bank, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Standard Chartered, Emirates NBD and Emirates Islamic Bank. The transaction was secured by a Corporate Guarantee from Dubai Investments PJSC and Union Properties PJSC in equal proportion, it said.

Speaking about clinching the loan, Abdul Aziz Bin Yagub Alserkal, Chairman, Emicool, said: “This milestone reaffirms the success of our business model. The financial boost will help realise our long-term expansion goals, such as investing in infrastructure, which will assist to offer quality products at competitive prices to capture a significant share of the market.”

Adib Moubadder, Managing Director, Emicool added: “The maximum capacity of the plants serving the developments in Dubai is 300,300TR, of which the installed capacity is 213,300TR. For the past two years, Emicool has won the gold award conferred by the International District Energy Association (IDEA) for the most buildings connected or committed to service beyond North America. The company is currently working on its plan to expand operations to KSA and Qatar.”

Amr El Nokaly, Head of Commercial Banking at Mashreq, commented, “We are very pleased to play a major role in this deal as the MLA and contribute to its closure.”