Bruno Alves
With 2012 coming to an end, it is looking likely that it will be remembered as the year the infrastructure debt market truly took off, writes Bruno Alves
Koc Holdings, UEM Group and Gozde offered $5.72bn yesterday for a 25-year concession to operate and maintain close to 2,000km of road across Turkey, including Istanbul’s two suspension bridges. The deal is the country’s second-largest privatisation.
Toll road operators in southern Europe have been particularly hard hit, experiencing traffic falls of more than 10% this year. But the ratings agency warns that the crisis is also eroding ‘the core stability of the infrastructure sector’.
Changes being considered by the UK government leading to a lower RPI could impact UK water companies through slower revenue and dividend growth, a mismatch between index-linked debt and the revised indicator, and even potential early bond redemptions, Moody’s warns.
Ashurst’s Gonzalo Jimenez Blanco (pictured) and José María Anarte offer a legal perspective on the troubles affecting Spain’s roads sector.
Three-and-a-half-years later, financial advisor Unicredit steered a club of 10 institutions to provide $960m of debt for an undersea tunnel and road linking Istanbul’s European and Asian sides. The icing on the cake: an 18-year door-to-door tenor, Turkey’s longest project financing.
The ratings agency has put the bank’s AAA rating on negative watch on account of what it calls ‘low probability but high-impact events’ such as multiple Eurozone exits.
The EIB’s project bond initiative could fail to launch in 2014 if its pilot phase turns out to be unsuccessful, with the bank fearful that sponsors and procurement authorities will fail to take advantage of the scheme. Bruno Alves reports
London’s High Court told the 22 investors looking to press charges against the Henderson PFI Secondary Fund II that they will have to forfeit their limited liability status if they wish to proceed with legal action.
PFI’s successor should have been the framework that conclusively brought institutional investors into the mainstream of greenfield infrastructure debt financing.