Loan syndication agreement to help develop waste-to-energy projects with local govts

The Asian Development Bank signed its first onshore local currency complementary loan syndication agreement worth $100 million on Tuesday to support Dynagreen Environmental Protection Group Co Ltd in clean municipal waste-to-energy projects with advanced technologies in small and medium-sized cities in China.

The loan syndication was arranged by the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd and oversubscribed with the participation of 10 commercial banks including BNP Paribas SA and Cathay United Bank Co Ltd.

The financing package will help develop waste-to-energy projects based on public-private partnership with small local governments, reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as soil and groundwater contamination.

Diwakar Gupta, ADB's vice-president for private sector and cofinancing operations, said: "Accumulation of large quantities of waste in unengineered landfills contaminated the soil and ground water and emitted harmful greenhouse gases. Catalyzing green technology for this important sector is yet a challenge but also a major opportunity for investors and financiers alike."

Dynagreen, the environmental infrastructure arm of Beijing State-owned Assets Management Company, will develop and operate waste-to-energy facilities under public-private partnership arrangements.

The project includes the construction of at least nine waste-to-energy plants generating roughly 610 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year by 2018 using clean technologies, which can burn low calorific value waste without coal as supplemental fuel and significantly eliminate methane emissions from municipal waste.

Hisaka Kimura, head of ADB's private sector infrastructure finance in East Asia Unit, said: "Dynagreen's project that we signed today is to support waste-to-energy projects in small and medium-sized cities, which are rather difficult for commercial banks to enter into individually. Our role is to link a series of those projects as a portfolio and then link the portfolio with leading international banks to multiply development impact.

"We have deep understanding of China's environmental challenge, so we structure the projects with our sector and country expertise that fits in the Chinese government priorities."

jiangxueqing@chinadaily.com.cn