Spanish-KSA consortium gets $811m loan for Holy City railway
Four Spanish banks back loan, in conjunction with state backed credit insurer and financial agency, to build 450km high-speed railway track running from Mecca-Medinah to Jeddah
A Spanish-Saudi Arabian consortium building the high speed railway linking the holy cities of Mecca and Medinah, have obtained a $811m loan facility necessary to start the project, it was announced on Monday.
The loan was syndicated through Spanish banks BBVA, Banesto, Banco De Sabadell and CaixaBank, a Reuters report said. Furthermore, the Spanish operations of Credit Agricole and Deutsche Bank also contributed to the funding of the project.
However, the terms of the deal, which involves the support of the state-backed Spanish credit insurer, CESCE and ICO, a state owned financial agency, were not disclosed.
The consortium includes the Spanish public rail companies, Renfe and Adif, private builders OHL, ACS and Indra. The Saudi Arabian partners are Al Shoula and Al Rosan.
The $8.5bn contract from Saudi Railways Organisation was handed out in October 2011, and will link the Holy Cities to the Rea Sea city of Jeddah, which is an entry point for millions of pilgrims entering the country for Haj. It will also link the King Abdullah Economic City, which is currently under construction, to the rest of the network.
The contract covers the construction of 450km of high speed track, which has the capacity to transport more than 160,000 passengers a day, Spain’s Ministry of Public Works said in an earlier statement.
