The Bank of Punjab Islamic finance transaction for Novacare Hospitals (Private) Limited has reached financial close, locking in a Rs17 billion syndicated Islamic project finance facility at a signing ceremony with the project’s sponsors, management and participating lenders. The money is meant to help build a 250-bed tertiary care hospital and a feeder clinic in Islamabad.
Sponsors are putting in Rs11.5 billion in equity, taking the overall project cost to about Rs28.5 billion. The Bank of Punjab’s own commitment is Rs5.8 billion. Novacare Hospitals (Private) Limited is described as Pakistan’s first and only hospital affiliated with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
How the Rs17 billion facility was put together
The Bank of Punjab arranged and structured the facility as Intercreditor Agent — the bank that coordinates among the lenders — and acted as Joint Mandated Lead Advisor & Arranger with United Bank Limited and Habib Bank Limited. Pak China Investment Company Limited joined as Co-Arranger. PAIR Investment Company Limited and Pak Libya Holding Company Limited participated as syndicate financiers.
Together, six institutions backed the deal. Bank of Punjab Islamic finance teams in investment banking and project finance were among those thanked at the close, alongside advisers and legal counsel. The structure is presented as Pakistan’s first greenfield hospital — a new build, not a refinance of an existing one — funded under a syndicated Islamic project finance facility, a model meant to mobilise long-term capital for healthcare infrastructure.
What Novacare and BOP said
Hans Kedzierski, chief executive of Novacare Hospitals (Private) Limited, thanked the lenders and said the hospital’s aim is international-standard care in Pakistan, with patient care and empathy at the centre of its work.
Zafar Masud, President and CEO of the Bank of Punjab, said healthcare matters to everyone and that Novacare was “more to us than a financing transaction,” calling it an investment in “the care, dignity and wellbeing of the people this hospital will serve.” He said financial close needed sponsor conviction and cooperation among all six institutions, and that the framework should make it easier for future hospitals to raise long-term funds. The real test, he added, will be “the day the hospital opens its doors to patients,” with BOP expecting to stay involved through construction and commissioning.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Bank of Punjab aur doosre banks ne Novacare Hospital ke liye 17 arab rupay ki Islamic financing final kar di hai. Yeh paise Islamabad mein 250-bed wala bada hospital aur ek clinic banane ke liye hain. Sponsors apni taraf se 11.5 arab rupay laga rahe hain, aur poora project lagbhag 28.5 arab ka hai. Jab hospital khulega, logon ko behtar ilaj ki sahoolat milne ki umeed hai.
