Qatar’s Public Works Authority (Ashghal) and a developer team led by Metito has reached financial close for the Gulf state's first independent sewage treatment plant (ISTP) project.

The Wakra and Wukair ISTP project is estimated to require about $720m in investment.

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

MEED understands the lenders providing debt totalling $540m for the project 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

As previously reported, the project is being financed on a 75:25 debt-to-equity ratio.

Other members of the winning developer consortium are local firm Al Attiya Motors & Trading Company and Kuwait’s Gulf Investment Corporation.

In addition to leading the developer consortium, Metito is also the project's engineering, procurement and construction contractor.

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

Ashghal awarded the contract to develop the project to the Metito-led consortium in January 2022. The contract award was officially confirmed in September of that year.

The project scope 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 under the project's initial phase is designed to accommodate the planned expansion.

The public-private partnership agreement (PPPA) with Ashghal covers the development of the sewage treatment plant on a build-operate-transfer basis.

The PPPA 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 to the client, respectively.

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

In March 2022, Ashghal awarded Mott MacDonald the project management consultancy contract for the ISTP project. The contract was worth QR41.8m.