Unique Hotel’s power project gets $463m foreign loan
Unique Meghnaghat Power Limited – a joint venture of Unique Hotel and Resorts, Strategic Finance Limited, Nebras Power Investment Management, and GE Capital Global Energy Investment – has secured a $463 million loan from four foreign lenders to finance the project.
In a stock exchange filing on Tuesday, the Unique Hotel said the owning companies have agreed to finance 75% of the project from bank loans and the remaining 25% through equity support.
As part of this, they have recently signed an agreement with the four foreign financial institutions. Standard Chartered Bank will provide $270 million, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank $110 million, the Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) $45 million, and the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) $38 million for 15 years.
Strategic Finance, Unique Hotel, and Nebras Power Investment Management hold 38.76%, 37.24%, and 24% of the shares of the power company, respectively.
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In July 2019, Unique Hotel signed a 22-year power purchase agreement with the Bangladesh Power Development Board to set up the country's largest combined-cycle power plant of 584 MW, fuelled by natural gas.
The power plant will be built on 18.75 acres of land at Sonargaon's Meghnaghat in Narayanganj at an overall estimated cost of $520 million. It is expected to go into operation by July 2022, generating electricity that could power seven lakh homes.
But due to the supply disruption caused by the Covid outbreak and later by the Ukraine-Russia war, the construction work has been delayed, and the new time will be determined by June this year.
Unique earns Tk205 crore
In April 2021, Nebras Power, a Qatar-based investment company, signed an agreement with Unique Hotel and Strategic Finance and Investments Ltd to buy a 24% stake in Unique Meghnaghat Power for Tk450 crore.
As per the agreement, Nebras Power Investment will buy 14,641 shares of the gas-based power plant from Unique Hotel at a face value of Tk10 each. Nebras Power will pay $24.06 million, or Tk205 crore, in four phases for these shares, including a premium. Strategic Finance will sell 12.24% of its holdings at a value of Tk245 crore. Nebras will pay off the total amount in four phases.
Nebras Power Investment has paid Tk82 crore to Unique Hotel as the first phase payment for acquiring Unique Meghnaghat in March last year.
Unique Hotel's performance
Unique Hotel and Resort, owner of the Westin Dhaka and Sheraton hotels, posted a 135% growth in revenue to Tk141 crore in the July-December period of last year.
The net profit of the company belonging to the travel and leisure sector also jumped around five times to Tk45 crore, while its earnings per share stood at Tk1.52 during the first half of FY23.
It earned an 84% higher revenue from The Westin Dhaka during the period. It earned Tk100 crore, 48.32% of which was from room rent and 45.15% from food services at the five-star hotel.
According to its official statement, compared to the last two years, the economic activities of the country have increased in the current fiscal year. Consequently, the number of guests and programmes at five-star hotels has also increased.
Unique Hotel and Resort said its revenue and profit increased due to an increase in Westin's revenue as well as the revenue it earned from a new hotel – Sheraton – that started operating under it last year.
Currently, Sheraton Hotel Dhaka has been selling food, but it has not started welcoming guests yet. In the first six months of FY23, it has sold food worth Tk29 crore.
The company will also build Westin-2 in the Gulshan area as an extension of Westin Dhaka. The company signed a Tk500 crore loan deal with the Al-Arafah Islami Bank last year to finance the project.
Unique Hotel shares closed 1.66% higher at Tk67.50 on Tuesday at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).
