Baker and McKenzie advises Evonik Industries AG on financing

Evonik is one of the four sponsors in the project, the others being National Industrialization Company (Tasnee), Sahara Petrochemicals Company (Sahara), and Dow Europe Holding B.V. (Dow).

The SAPCO joint venture (formed by Evonik, Tasnee and Sahara) will construct and operate the first super absorbent polymer production plant in the region. The plant is scheduled to begin production in late 2013.

George Sayen, Riyadh based partner said:" We value our strong relationship with Evonik and we are delighted to have acted for them on such a significant transaction and their first in the Kingdom."

Caroline Long, partner in the Bahrain office, further stated: "The financing involved three Islamic facilities, Murabaha, Procurement and Wakala, and facilities to be made available by The Public Investment Fund (PIF) and The Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF). What made the financing particularly interesting was that, although it is an integrated project, it involves three different project companies each with different sponsors. The inter-relationship between the project companies and their respective sponsors added another layer of complexity to the financing."

The Baker & McKenzie team was led by partners George Sayen and Caroline Long with the assistance of Bahrain based associates Sohaila Rahman and Fatima Ghaith. Baker & McKenzie's offices in Amsterdam and Dusseldorf were also involved.

As in-house counsel of Evonik Michael Heckmann (all project agreements), Matthias Wegener, Wolfgang Nestel, Dr. Steffen Lindenthal (all Banking&Finance Laws), Dr. Norbert Löw and Dr. Arne Ott (all Anti-Trust Laws) were involved.

A Baker & McKenzie team, led by partner Gordon Prestige, also acted for Dow.

The project companies were represented by Linklaters and the financiers were represented by Clifford Chance.