Leumi leads $825 mln funding of private Israel power plant

JERUSALEM Nov 1 (Reuters) - Bank Leumi said it was leading a consortium of banks to finance what will become Israel's largest private power plant.

The banks will lend Dalia Power Energies - which is building a 4 billion shekel, 870 megawatt electric power plant - 3.2 billion shekels ($825 million), Leumi, Israel's second-largest bank, said on Thursday.

The rest of the money will come from Dalia's own resources, including 400 million shekels it raised in a private share offering.

A company owned by collective agricultural settlements owns 47.7 percent of Daila.

The financing deal will allow the natural gas-powered Dalia to start operating its plant in 2015. Dalia earlier this year agreed to buy up to 1.38 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas annually for 17 years from the Tamar natural gas field to operate the plant in a deal worth about $5 billion.

($1 = 3.88 shekels) (Reporting by Steven Scheer)