Blended Financing for the Expansion of The As-Samra Wastewater Plant in Jordan

A blended financial package was put in place to finance the expansion of the As-Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant. The project was undertaken by the Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant Company Limited (SPC), a private operator that was recruited through a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract to finance, upgrade, and operate the treatment plant. The private operator was required to mobilize private financing, which it did through an equity contribution and a syndicated limited recourse loan provided by domestic banks in local currency. The overall financial package also included public funds provided as viability gap funding (VGF), including contributions from the Government of Jordan and a grant from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Public funding was critical to help structure the deal and to convince private financiers to step in and provide what was, at the time, the longest maturity ever achieved for a Jordanian dinar-denominated limited recourse loan.