Milbank advises lenders on $5.2bn expansion of Saudi Arabia petrochemical plant

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy has advised lenders on the $5.2bn expansion financing for the PetroRabigh refining and petrochemicals project in Saudi Arabia.

The lenders include Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and several commercial banks/Islamic financial institutions.

PetroRabigh’s existing facility is situated on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast with a capacity to produce 17 million tonnes of refined products and 2.4 million tonnes of petrochemical products per year.

The new expansion facility, dubbed Rabigh 2, is being developed jointly by Saudi Aramco and Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical. It will increase output from the plant as well as introduce higher-margin products.

It will bring derivative products including ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber, thermo plastic olefin, methyl methacrylate and polymethyl methacrylate.

The Milbank deal team was advised led out of the company’s London office by partners Phillip Fletcher, John Dewar and Clive Ransome.

The team advised the existing lenders to the project company and the expansion’s financing parties.

Fletcher said: "The Rabigh 2 Project is another landmark project financing for the sponsors and for Saudi Arabia. As a carefully integrated expansion of a fully operational project, it required a truly integrated financing."

Prior to PetroRabigh project, Milbank advised lenders on the $12.5bn financing for the Sadara integrated chemicals-project in 2013.