Gulf Construction Online - TRSDC achieves close of $3.76bn loan

Saudi Focus

The Red Sea Project gives high priority to preserving the environment.

TRSDC achieves close of $3.76bn loan

01 February 2022

The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC), the developer behind the world’s most ambitious regenerative tourism project, has achieved financial close on its SR14.120 billion ($3.76 billion) term loan facility and revolving credit facility with four leading Saudi banks.

The banks are Banque Saudi Fransi, Riyad Bank, and Saudi British Bank, with Saudi National Bank acting as mandated lead arrangers.

“This year, we have proceeded at pace with the delivery of our flagship project, all the while mindful of our commitment to not only reduce our impact on the environment but actively deliver a 30 percent net conservation benefit by 2040,” explained John Pagano, Chief Executive Officer of TRSDC.

“With our capital structure fully in place we will continue to focus on execution and delivery of the project, which remains on schedule to welcome first guests by the end of this year. We are grateful to our banking partners for their support of one of Vision 2030’s most exciting projects,” he added.

TRSDC’s Green Financing was recently acknowledged with an award for Project Finance Deal of Year in the Capital Markets Saudi Arabia Awards. The award, granted by the GFC Media Group (one of the big conference organisers and award givers in the Middle East transaction space), is in recognition of the year’s most innovative and ground-breaking deals from sovereign, corporate and financial Institution issuers and borrowers.

The Green Financing accreditation was awarded due to TRSDC’s market leading approach to social and environmental sustainability and The Red Sea Project’s (TRSP) international recognition as a green project. The financing is the first riyal-denominated credit facility to receive Green Financing accreditation and the development is the first major project in the kingdom to successfully access the capital markets, the company stated.

Confirming its commitment to protecting and enhancing the 28,000-sq-km project area of The Red Sea Project, TRSDC last month announced that it has gained the Environmental Management Standard, ISO14001:2015 accreditation.

In efforts to achieve environmental excellence, TRSDC developed an Environmental Management System (EMS), producing an EMS Manual in January 2021. The EMS was rolled out company-wide by mid-2021, supporting the company’s bid for The Red Sea Project to achieve ISO14001:2015 certification.

“This certification is a remarkable achievement and another example of how we are doing things differently to lead the way as we develop this ground-breaking destination,” said Pagano. “We made a commitment to ourselves, our project and to the kingdom to go beyond the current expectations of environmental best practice, to deliver a regenerative approach to tourism development. This latest accolade is proof that we are doing all we can to become standard-bearers for Saudi Arabia.”

TRSDC’s EMS is aimed at guiding and managing its activities with respect to the environment throughout design, construction, and operational stages. Its implementation allows TRSDC to identify areas in need of improvement and actively work towards bettering them.