Clifford Chance advises on the financing of a $5.01bn aluminium smelter project developed by Ma'aden Aluminium Company

The aluminium smelter, which is to initially produce 740,000 metric tonnes per annum of primary aluminium, is the first to be constructed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is being developed by Ma'aden Aluminium Company (MAC). MAC is a joint-venture between the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma'aden) (74.9%) and Alcoa Inc (25.1%).

The total amount of the multi-sourced financing for the project will be US$3.256 billion and comprises an Islamic Ijara facility (including separate Riyal and US dollar tranches), an Islamic Wakala facility (including separate Riyal and US dollar tranches), a commercial facility, a facility to be provided by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and a facility to be provided by the Saudi Industrial Development Fund.

Clifford Chance acting through its offices in Frankfurt, Dubai and Paris and Al-Jadaan & Partners Law Firm acted for the financing group, comprising Islamic and commercial banks / financial institutions led by a set of mandated lead arrangers which included Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corporation, Alinma Bank, Arab National Bank, Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP), Bank AlJazira, Banque Saudi Fransi, BNP Paribas, Emirates NBD, Export Development Canada, Riyad Bank, Samba Financial Group, Saudi Hollandi Bank, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, The National Commercial Bank and The Saudi British Bank. Banque Saudi Fransi acted as documentation bank.

The Clifford Chance team was led by partner Edmund Boyo (Frankfurt) who was assisted by partners Qudeer Latif (Dubai) and Nicholas Wong (Paris). The core team comprised Matthew Meyerink (senior associate, Frankfurt), Paul McViety (counsel, Dubai) and Debra Counsell (Of Counsel, Paris). The wider team included: Craig Dale, Michael Gibling, Anna Thwaites (each based in Frankfurt); Richard Parris (partner), Sandy Hall (counsel), Katja Fenton, Benjamin Goss, Shauaib Mirza and Cheuk-Yin Cheung (each based in Dubai); and Corinne Duvnjak (Paris). The Al-Jadaan team was led by Mohammed Al-Jadaan (partner), Abdulaziz Al-Abduljabbar (partner) and Riyadh-based Clifford Chance partner, Mohamed Hamra-Krouha, with support from partner Khalid Al-Abdulkareem (partner) and associates Fahad Abuhimed, Yasser Alhussain and Nader Alharbi.

The sponsors, through Ma'aden Rolling Company (MRC), will also develop a US$2.52 billion aluminium rolling mill project, that will be located adjacent to the smelter. The rolling mill will be the first to be constructed in the GCC. The same teams from Clifford Chance and Al-Jadaan & Partners Law Firm advised on that financing in parallel with the financing of the aluminium smelter project.