Citi has completed a debt financing arrangement for National Power Transmission Corporation (NPT) for a total value of $200 million with a tenor of 13 years. The agreement is guaranteed by Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance and insured by the Japanese export credit agency, Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (Nexi) under Nexi’s overseas united loan insurance programme. Citi is the sole Nexi coordinator and joint lead arranger with the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) and the Sumitomo Trust and Banking (STB).
“With the strategic role of managing the entire transmission network through Vietnam, NPT has significant funding requirements to finance the development and operation of the transmission network,” said Nguyen Manh Hung, general director at NPT, in a statement. “The signing of this $200 million financing package to finance power transmission projects of NPT marks a very important milestone in NPT’s development. It has paved a new direction for NPT in diversifying our funding sources apart from the traditional commercial loans and official development assistance funds, while at the same time providing us with a competitive financing solution.”
The $200 million loan facility will be used to finance the construction of four power transmission projects in Vietnam. Upon completion, the projects will upload the electricity that is generated from the power plants to the national electricity network. Southern Vietnam industrial zones in the Dong Nai and Binh Duong province and Ho Chi Minh City will benefit from the stability and reliability of the power distribution network from these four new projects.
“The power transmission projects are pivotal infrastructure projects to help develop the national transmission network, a backbone of the country’s electricity system,” said Brett Krause, managing director and country officer at Citi in Vietnam, in a statement.
NPT is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vietnam Electricity which is a state-owned power utility group and manages the transmission network throughout the country.
