Standard Chartered
With a track record of more than 160 years of operations in China and 150 years in the Middle East and Africa, Standard Chartered is ideally placed to foster connections between the regions in the Belt and Road Initiative.
Last year, more than half of the UK bank’s near-100 BRI-related projects were located in MEA, with the majority focused on infrastructure and energy.
In June 2018, Standard Chartered supported China Road and Bridge Construction in issuing a performance bond for a railway project in Kenya to support part of the building of the Standard Gauge Railway between Mombasa and Nairobi.
Under the leadership of Sunil Kaushal, regional chief executive for Africa and the Middle East, the bank has been involved in important road projects. For example, in Zambia, it facilitated the financing of the rehabilitation and construction of over 400 kilometres of roads by China Henan International Cooperation Group, while in Kenya, it was nominated as the sole project account bank by a Chinese EPC for the Redhill Link road project, providing services including payments, collections and related FX.
In the energy sector, the landmark deal in the awards period was Acwa Power Noor Energy 1, a 950-megawatt solar power plant in Dubai that attracted financing from several Chinese banks and equity investment from the Silk Road Fund.
As the documentation bank, Standard Chartered led the structuring from pre-bid in 2017 to closure in early 2019, in keeping with its commitment to uphold the highest governance standards in its involvement in the BRI.
The bank was the mandated lead arranger for facilitating the financing of the Haya Power and Desalination Plant in Bahrain this year, which attracted a range of global investors and will be built by Chinese contractor Sepco 3.