The financial close of the HSL BPL project, one of the largest Contrat de Partenariat with a total project cost of ca. Euro 3.3 billion and for which CBR acted as exclusive financial advisor to Eiffage (contract holder), was reached on 28 July 2011.
This railway stretch will get the main cities of Brittany closer to Paris through an average time gain of ca. 37 minutes. For example the city of Rennes will now be within a one hour and a half reach from Paris. The project is part of the French plan to promote PPPs (Plan de Relance and Grenelle de l’Environnement). It is worth noting that the environment component was essential in the way the infrastructure was designed.
This « jumbo » project involved the structuring and raising of ca. Euro 1.1 billion of long term debt from a large pool of banks (12), EIB, and the saving funds from the French Direction des Fonds d’Epargne. Despite the amounts involved, the complexity of such infrastructure and of its legal/ financial components, Eiffage and CBR have succeeded in obtaining competitive terms from the lenders. It is worth mentioning that the project was closed within a 6-month period, which compares favourably with the respectively 14 months and 16 months necessary for other large rail related projects such as the GSM-Rail (for which CBR advised RFF) and HSL Sud Est Atlantique (for which CBR advised MAPPP and RFF, in their capacity of guarantors to some debt tranches).
CBR’s Project Finance Team is very proud to have contributed to the success of this landmark project, which reinforces our position and reputation as a leading financial advisor in the field of transport infrastructure project financing.