Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises Acciona Agua, Green of Africa and Afriquia Gaz as sponsors on the Casablanca Seawater Desalination Project, Africa's largest desalination plant and the largest in the world to be supplied 100% by renewable energy

Global law firm Clifford Chance has advised Acciona Agua, Green of Africa and Afriquia Gaz as sponsors on the successful award and then the financing of the Casablanca desalination plant, representing a total investment of € 613 million that will be executed through a public-private partnership (PPP) contract with the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water of Morocco.

The project is being financed by Fondo para la Internacionalización de la Empresa (FIEM) through ICO, Société Générale (with support from Cesce, the Spanish Export Credit Agency, through the Green Investment Policy), Attijariwafa Bank, Banque Centrale Populaire, Bank of Africa, Caixa, and COFIDES.

The project will provide the daily production flow to all sources of drinking water supply in the Casablanca-Settat region. The production capacity of the first phase will be 559,000 m³ per day and an additional 279,500 m³ per day in the second phase.

Located in Sidi Rahal, in the Greater Casablanca area, the project will contribute decisively to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: Clean Water and Sanitation.

100% of the desalination unit needs will be supplied by renewable wind energy through a power purchase agreement (PPA) with a Moroccan renewable energy producer that will guarantee the supply of 100% of the plant's consumption, a wind project on which Clifford Chance also acted as lenders legal advisor.

The Clifford Chance team was led by Partner Ouns Lemseffer with support from the London, Madrid and Casablanca offices with Sandy Hall (Partner) and Irina Steinberg (Director) in London, Eugenio Fernández-Rico (Partner), Eduardo Sánchez (Counsel) and María González Rubio (Associate) in Madrid, Youssef Tork (Associate), Yasmine Hitane (Associate) and Mounia Beddari (Associate) in Casablanca.

Deloitte acted as financial advisor to the Sponsors, with Kiwan Kiwan (Director) in Dubai, Anass Nadem (Director) and Karim Laraqui Houssaini (Manager) in Casablanca.