DUBAI  - NBK Capital Partners has provided mezzanine capital to Saudi's energy rental business Energia Model Trading and Contracting LLC, a senior executive said, the third deal from the alternative investment firm's $160 million second mezzanine fund set up last year.

The funding follows similar investments by NBK into a private international K-12 school in Riyadh, and Turkey's market leader in electronic payment systems, Perkon.

The sharia-compliant mezzanine investment will enable Energia, one of the largest providers of temporary power solutions based in Saudi Arabia's eastern province, to expand and take advantage of the increased construction activity and infrastructure spending stimulated by Saudi Vision 2030, an economic reform programme.

Jubail-based Energia has 500 generators and a total capacity of 250 megawatts.

"Saudi Arabia for us across the platform has been the second largest destination for funds," Yaser Moustafa, senior managing director at NBK Capital Partner told Reuters.

"This is our seventh within Saudi and our third investment in the private financing side."

NBK Capital Partners normally invests $15 to $30 million on the private financing side of its business and this investment is towards the higher end of that, he said, without specifying the actual investment amount in this particular financing facility.

NBK Capital Partners, which focuses on mid-sized companies in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, has advised on investments of over $1 billion and has made profitable exits from 17 of its 29 investments, it said.

Founded in 2005, NBK Capital Partners manages private equity, mezzanine and real estate funds and is a unit of NBK Capital, a subsidiary of the National Bank of Kuwait. (Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)

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