Shearman & Sterling, Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy and Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) have signed a $2.8bn (£1.42bn) financing agreement for the world’s largest independent water and power plant (IWPP) – the $3.5bn (1.77bn) Marafiq project in Saudi Arabia.

The financing, which was signed last week and is expected to complete at the end of the month, means construction on the plant in Jubail Industrial City will now go ahead through developers Suez Energy, ACWA and Gulf Investment Corporation.