Agreement on Financing Third Power Generating Unit at Ekibastuzskaya GRES-2 Signed

Almaty, 5 July 2010. Today in Astana, the Agreement on the Terms of Financing the Construction of the Third Power Generating Unit of Ekibastuzskaya GRES-2 was signed in the presence of President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Thus, a sizable investment project was commenced in Kazakhstan by Ekibastuzskaya GRES-2 whose shareholders are Samruk-Energo and INTER RAO EES. Long-term financing will be provided by the EDB and the Bank of Development and Foreign Trade (Vneshekonombank).

Under this project, the third power generating unit with an installed capacity of 500 MW will be constructed at Ekibastuzskaya GRES-2.

The EDB and Vneshekonombank will provide a multicurrency 15-year facility for a total of $770 million on a parity basis. The total project cost is about $800 million.

“Implementing this sizable project will practically assist the reunification of the power systems of Russia and Kazakhstan and integration in the post-Soviet space. This is an important step towards a common power market in EurAsEC,” said Igor Finogenov, Chairman of the EDB Executive Board. “This project will promote mutual trade and investments, as the power plant is co-owned on a parity basis by Russian and Kazakh shareholders and supplies most of its electricity to the common power system of the Russian Federation, and equipment for the new power generating unit will be provided by Russian mechanical engineering companies”.

Actually the EDB has been co-operating with Ekibastuzskaya GRES-2 , Samruk-Energo and INTER RAO EES since 2007. Particularly, the Bank has provided a $93.5-million, 10-year loan for the Programme of Technical Rehabilitation of the power plant.