The distinction was granted for being the first PPP project to be awarded in Egypt, covering the design, construction and operation of the plant for 20 years, which represents a backlog of over 360 million euro.
 
Global Water Intelligence (GWI) magazine has given the Water Deal  of the Year award to the financial closure of the New Cairo sewage plant in Egypt, recognising the greatest contribution to the development of public-private partnerships (PPP) worldwide.
 
The project to finance, design, build and operate the New Cairo sewage farm in Cairo, Egypt, was awarded to the Orasqualia consortium, which is comprised 50% each by Aqualia, FCC's specialised water management subsidiary, and Egyptian company Orascom Construction Industries (OCI). The 20-year concession contract represents a backlog of over 360 million euro.
 
The award, presented at a ceremony in Paris yesterday presided by Queen Noor of Jordan, was collected by Miguel Jurado, Aqualia's Subdirector General of Development and International, and Tamer Shafik, Commercial Subdirector at Orascom Construction Industries (OCI).
 
The award recognises not only the fact that this is the first PPP project awarded in Egypt, in any industry, but also the speed with which financial closure was attained, a record 7 months.
 
Four banks participated in the pool: National Société Générale Bank SAE (NSGB), Commercial International Bank (CIB) Egypt SAE, Arab African International Bank SAE and Ahli United Bank (Egypt) SAE. NSGB acted as agent bank and CIB as custodian.Baker & McKenzie is the project's legal advisor.
 
This is Aqualia time to win one of the GWI awards, which are acknowledged as the top distinctions in the water industry worldwide: in 2007, it was named Water Company of the Year.
 
Aqualia's first contract in Egypt
 
The New Cairo plant, which will process sewage from over one million people, is Aqualia's first contract in Egypt and is another step in the company's international expansion, which is focused particularly on North Africa, an area where Aqualia is already building two of the continent's largest desalination plants, in Mostaganem and Cap Djinet (both in Algeria). Aqualia is also actively bidding for new water infrastructure contracts in Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. In the Middle East, the company has opened a business development office in the United Arab Emirates; it has projects under way in the UAE, as well as Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia, where there are prospects for major business opportunities in the coming years.
 
Aqualia heads the water division of FCC, one of Europe's leading citizen services companies. It is the third-largest water company in the world and operates in over 1,100 municipalities worldwide, serving over 27 million people. Aqualia has a backlog of 12.2 billion euro, 30% of which comes from activities outside Spain. It currently operates in 14 countries, including Portugal, the Czech Republic, Italy, Egypt, Algeria, China, and Mexico. Aqualia responds to the needs of all parties, private and public, at all stages of the water cycle, providing water for human, industrial, and agricultural uses.