The Export-Import Bank of Korea (www.koreaexim.go.kr, Chairman Lee Duk-Hoon, “Korea Eximbank”) announced on October 20 that it will provide USD 3.1 billion for the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant project ("BNPP"). The bid of this project, offered by Emirate Nuclear Energy Corporation (“ENEC"), was awarded to Korea Electric Power Corporation (“KEPCO”).

The lender group composed of Korea Eximbank and four other financial institutions gathered and signed Finance Documents with ENEC and KEPCO in Abu Dhabi on October 20.

The four financial institutions, apart from Korea Eximbank, participating as lenders in the project include Standard Chartered Bank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, HSBC MEL, and First Gulf Bank.

Out of the USD 3.1 billion that Korea Eximbank will provide for this project, USD 2.5 billion will go to Barakah One Company, a joint venture established by ENEC and KEPCO, and the remaining USD 600 million will be allotted to KEPCO, which will be used for equity funding.

BNPP, Korea's first overseas project to build a nuclear power plant, aims to construct four KEPCO designed APR-1400 reactors in Barakah, the region located 270 kilometers west of Abu Dhabi.

While KEPCO is entitled to manage the BNPP as the prime contractor, other Korean companies are expected to play leading roles each throughout the whole process of the project from engineering, procurement, and construction to operation and management.

With its ground-breaking ceremony held in March 2011, the BNPP is scheduled to be completed by 2020. Unit 1 is scheduled to start operations in 2017 and the remaining three reactors planned for operations by 2020.

A Korea Eximbank official said, "The financing for this project is a representative of long-term financial support by an official credit agency to a mega-scale plant project overseas." He added, "This project conveys quite a significant meaning because Korea Eximbank had clearly expressed its intention to finance the project from the very initial stage and took the lead on supporting Korean companies aspiring to pioneer new markets abroad.“