A team led by Metito is expected to reach financial close soon on the Wakra and Al-Wukair independent sewage treatment plant (ISTP) project in Qatar, according to sources close to the project.

The developer team of Qatar’s first public-private partnership (PPP) sewage treatment plant (STP) also includes local firm Al-Attiya Motors & Trading Company and Kuwait’s Gulf Investment Corporation.

The Wakra and Al-Wukair ISTP project is estimated to cost $720m.

As previously reported by MEED, the lenders providing debt totalling $540m are:

• Saudi National Bank (Saudi Arabia): $200m
• Norinchukin Bank (Japan): $160m
• Apicorp (Saudi Arabia): $100m
• Siemens Bank (Germany): $50m
• SBI Shinsei (Japan): $20m
• Natixis (France): $10m 

The project is being financed on a 75:25 debt-to-equity ratio, although this could change depending on the final hedging arrangement, MEED reported in July this year.

UK-headquartered Pinsent Masons is the international counsel to the lenders, while Al-Tamimi Qatar is the lenders’ local counsel. 

Qatar’s Public Works Authority (Ashghal) awarded a Metito-led consortium the contract to develop the project in January 2022. The contract award was officially confirmed in September last year.

Metito is also the engineering, procurement and construction contractor.

The planned STP will have a treatment capacity of 150,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d), extendable to 600,000 cm/d in a later phase.

The project also involves the construction of a pumping station, two deep-shaft structures and a tunnel ventilation and odour-control facility.

The basic infrastructure that will be put in place in the project's initial phase is designed to accommodate the planned expansion.  

The PPP agreement with Ashghal covers the development of the STP on a build, operate and transfer basis.

The PPP agreement will be for 25 years, with Ashghal’s payment obligations backed by a sovereign guarantee. This is exclusive of the four-year construction period.

UK firms PwC, Mott MacDonald and Eversheds Sutherland provided financial, technical and legal advisory services, respectively, to the client on the project.

US/India-based Synergy Consulting and the UK’s Norton Rose Fulbright advised the Metito consortium. 

In March 2022, Ashghal awarded Mott MacDonald the QR41.76m project management consultancy contract for the project.