Ajyad Knowledge Company for Education and Training and Al Bawani Company Limited, in its capacity as the Sponsors, and Tatweer Buildings Company (TBC), in its capacity as joint Procurer along with the Ministry of Education (MOE) achieved the financial close for the first wave (“Wave 1”) of the Schools Infrastructure Development Programme, the pathfinder project for Kingdom’s Educational Public Private Partnership (“PPP”) Programme.
The Programme consists of multiple Waves that aim to improve school building quality throughout the whole life cycle management, while increasing overall private sector involvement in the education sector. The successful financial close of Wave 1 marks the first social infrastructure PPP in the Kingdom and supports the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 in diversifying and improving the education sector.
The adopted PPP transaction structure resulted in a balanced risk allocation between the Procurer, the Sponsors and its Lenders. The transaction has enabled the Procurer and the Government to deliver a pathfinder PPP model in the Kingdom that utilizing the new privatization framework put in place by the National Center for Privatization & PPP. This contract plays a key role in diversifying the credit enhancement tools available to the Government, allowing it to implement further large scale infrastructure development projects.
The private sector through Wave One Project Company will finance, design, build, maintain, and transfer back to the government 60 schools in Jeddah and Makkah. The Annual Equivalent Payment for the transaction is circa SAR 86M.
The senior debt and equity bridge loan facilities to the project were provided by Saudi British Bank, Banque Saudi Fransi, Alinma Bank and Riyad Bank.
The engineering, procurement and construction contract to build the 60 schools in Jeddah & Makkah has been awarded to Al Bawani Company Limited in partnership with Saudi Consolidated Engineering Company (Khatib & Alami) The facilities management services will be provided by Ajyad Knowledge & SNC Lavalin.
The Wave 1 schools will be operational within 3 years and ultimately benefit more than 50,000 students across the two cities. The schools will provide students with state-of-the-art education facilities, entertainment space, and infrastructure to encourage student sports.
The shareholders of the Sponsors of the project including Vision Invest, Al Mutlaq Group Company, Omran M. Al Omran & Partners Co Limited and Al Bawani Company Limited are proud to be supporting the Wave 1 project and the first social infrastructure PPP project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.