Bruno Alves
The Soteria consortium - including Royal Bank of Scotland, French defence contractor Thales and helicopter specialist CHC – has been selected as the preferred bidder for the UK’s £5bn Search and Rescue Helicopter PFI. The contract will last for 25 years with the private partner to start providing services to the Ministry of Defence in 2012.
Italy's Impreglio and Brazil’s CR Almeida Group, the controlling shareholders of Ecorodovias, will sell their stakes in the company via the IPO. Neither the timeline nor the number of shares to be sold are yet known. Ecorodovias is one of Brazil’s largest toll road operators, managing over 1,450 kilometres of roads.
Royal Bank of Scotland has pulled together a club of eight banks to join it in reaching financial close for Bilfinger Berger’s €562m Peninsula Link – a 25-kilometre road near Melbourne. The deal reasserts RBS’ presence in the PPP market, after it was forced to scale back its activity when it ran into trouble following the financial crisis.
Nicolas Merigo, formerly the head of Santander Infrastructure Capital, has been appointed chief executive of Marguerite Adviser, the advisory body that will be responsible for originating investments for the EU’s €1.5 billion Marguerite infrastructure fund. The fund is expected to reach a first close on March 3 2010.
Consortia led by Bouygues, Eiffage and VINCI have submitted initial offers for the construction of France’s ‘Pentagon’ – a €600m building in Paris which aims to concentrate all of the nation’s top military officials. A second round of bidding is scheduled for July 1 2010.
A subsidiary of Spanish construction company FCC together with Egyptian firm Orascom Construction have reached financial close for the pathfinder PPP – the €360m New Cairo wastewater treatment facility. Four regional banks provided debt for the project.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has bought a 15% stake in London’s Gatwick airport. The deal is part of Global Infrastructure Partners’ plan to syndicate equity after it purchased Gatwick. The sale of a 12% stake to South Korea’s National Pension Service, announced earlier this week, is also part of the same syndication.
Portugal’s recently appointed public works minister has said that the country’s motorway concessions programme has been put on hold indefinitely as the government now focuses on developing high-speed rail and Lisbon’s new airport. The decision will not affect projects currently in procurement.
Boris Johnson, London’s Mayor, has strongly criticised the PPP contract to upgrade the London underground, calling contractors Ferrovial and Bechtel 'a bunch of rogue builders' and describing the PPP contract as 'larceny'. Tube Lines responds and urges Mayor to "stop playing games".
Ben Velazquez has joined Commerzbank to become head of its North American infrastructure financing business. He was previously at Standard Chartered Bank and has over 15 years of experience in the market.