Bruno Alves
Debt-laden Portugal is said to be accelerating plans to sell a 30% stake in REN – the operator of the country’s electricity and natural gas transmission networks – in which the government owns 51%. The sale could net it at least €450 million at current share prices.
Ten Iberian banks and the European Investment Bank have provided a debt package of €1.2bn to close one of the last projects that forms part of Portugal’s €5bn roads programme. Despite its recent downgrade and pressure from the financial markets, pricing on the funding remained the same.
The Russian development bank says it will buy back up to 70% of a planned $340m bond issue to help fund the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway – the first Russian road PPP to reach financial close. It also said it will continue negotiations to get the EBRD on board the project.
The German industrial group is looking to sell a minority stake in its power generation business. The unit is said to have generated €400m in EBITDA and about €2.5bn in sales last year. Its long-term sales contracts should make it attractive for infrastructure players, a source said.
The $850m Odintsovo bypass has become the second Russian road PPP to reach financial close. As with the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway, a bond issue guaranteed by the Russian government was instrumental in securing the close.
But a source familiar with the process says the bid deadline might get pushed back slightly as the three consortia in the race prepare their binding bids.
The chief executive of Emirates NBD Capital said in an interview that the bank is gearing up to launch an infrastructure fund to capitalise on a $500 billion infrastructure opportunity in the Gulf region.
Balfour Beatty has sold stakes in two Scottish PPPs to Barclays Integrated Infrastructure Fund and a subsidiary of Kelda Water for £24.1m.
The $2.1bn Moscow-St. Petersburg highway has become the first Russian road PPP to reach financial close. Sberbank and Vnesheconombank have provided ruble funding for the project which includes a bond issue guaranteed by the Russian government.
As their 75-year leases come to an end, the government prepares to re-tender a package of 10 hydropower concessions producing a combined 5,300 megawatts of electricity. The first tenders are expected to be out this summer.