Empower secures $128m financing facility from DIB

Empower, a district cooling services provider, has secured a Dh469 million ($127.8 million) financing from Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), marking the first Islamic financing facility availed by the company.

“The agreement between Empower and Dubai Islamic Bank is an important milestone as this is the first bilateral deal between the two entities,” said Ahmad Bin Shafar, Chief Executive Officer, Empower.

“We are looking forward to our partnership that will support the development of a world-class district cooling network in the United Arab Emirates.”

The facility has been granted for a tenor of five years payable over half yearly instalments to fund Empower’s multi-plant district cooling network in Dubai’s Business Bay area.

The Business Bay district cooling network will eventually consist of 350,000 Refrigeration Tonnes (RT) worth of capacity for business, retail and residential buildings across this rapidly expanding neighbourhood.

“This is significant because DIB considers Empower a secure investment. The DIB agreement will provide us with cost-effective funding to sustain our growth and drive the implementation of our landmark Business Bay project” explained Bin Shafar.

Empower holds the world’s largest district cooling services capacity. In total, the company’s existing district cooling services network consists of one million RT of capacity across many landmark real estate projects in Dubai including Business Bay, Jumeirah Beach Residence, Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai Healthcare City, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Palm Jumeirah, Discovery Gardens, Dubai Design District among others.

“We pursue a financing strategy through a mix of debt and equity to maximise shareholder returns,” concluded Bin Shafar. “Over the last decade, we have found that our prudent strategies have enabled us to deliver solid operating and financial results and meet our commitments as per agreed timelines.”

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.