SAUDI Oger has reached a deal with a group of leading banks to secure a landmark $800-million senior term loan facility and a SR3.97-billion ($1.05 billion) advance payment guarantee (APG) facility to fund the King Abdullah Project 2 (KAP2), which involves setting up security facilities in Saudi Arabia.

The loan will be arranged by Deutsche Bank (acting through its London and Riyadh branches), China Development Bank and Emirates Bank NBD, each acting as an initial mandated lead arranger and book runner for both the term loan facility and the APG facility. Also joining the project facilities are Industrial and Commercial Bank of China acting as mandated lead arranger for the term loan facility and Natixis Dubai branch acting as mandated lead arranger for the project facilities.

Al-Hilal Bank and Barclays Capital have also acceded to the transaction as lead arrangers for the APG facility. A general syndication phase will be launched shortly.

The project facilities, entered into in May 2011, were raised to partially finance the King Abdullah Project 2, which was commissioned by the Ministry of Interior.

The project facilities are the first to be led exclusively by non-Saudi domiciled institutions as part of an ongoing strategy by Saudi Oger to diversify and broaden its financing base for its core infrastructure construction and contracting business.

Mohammed Hariri, senior vice-president of Saudi Oger, said: “The King Abdullah Project 2 is of the highest priority for Saudi Oger, as part of our long history of executing the infrastructure plans of Arabia. We look forward to other institutions joining us in the transaction during the syndication process.”