Green Sky Capital Egypt SAF facility receives first African project financing

The Emerging Africa & Asia Infrastructure Fund (EAAIF) has agreed to a $40m senior secured loan for Green Sky Capital’s Egypt SAF Facility.

This comes as part of a wider debt package of $142.9m, alongside Ninety One’s Emerging Markets Transition Debt (EMTD) Fund. Qatar National Bank, via its Egyptian subsidiary QNB S.A.E committed $31.4m (read this story here) while the Arab Energy Fund has committed $71.4m. Ninety One acted as the global mandated lead arranger and coordinating lender for the financing. This is the first project financed SAF facility in Africa and the Middle East.

“This transaction arrives at a critical juncture for the global energy market. Amid heightened geopolitical volatility and energy market uncertainty, this first-of-its-kind facility provides a practical solution to advancing both decarbonisation and energy security,” says Martijn Proos, co-head of emerging market alternate credit, Ninety One.

The $212.4m project is located in the Sokhna Special Economic Zone, near the Suez Canal, and will be owned and operated by Green Sky Capital and its local subsidiary, SAF Fly Egypt. At full capacity the facility will produce 200,000 tonnes per year of biofuels, including SAF, using HEFA technology.

“Emerging markets have been transitioning toward renewables and cleaner energy sources for some time, driven by rising energy costs and the need to strengthen energy security,” says Alper Kilic, head of alternative credit, Ninety One. “This investment highlights the critical role long-term capital plays in scaling next-generation energy infrastructure in emerging markets.”

Shell acts as the project anchor, acting as the primary feedstock provider and project offtaker, on a take-or-pay basis (original story here). The project also has strong regional sponsors in Al Mana Holdings of Qatar and Saudi Arabian infrastructure investor Vision Invest.

“This project demonstrates how institutional investors can pursue attractive risk-adjusted returns while supporting the real economy transition, and underscores the growing opportunity for transitions debt strategies to finance high impact assets in hard to abate sectors,” concludes Kilic.

The project’s location offers direct export routes to key demand centres in the EU and UK, which are both implementing blending mandates.