European Road Deal of The Year goes to the financing of construction and operation of A2 Motorway Section Świecko – Nowy Tomyśl (106 km)

Today (27 November) the “Deal of the Year” was awarded in London to the financing of the construction and operation of A2 section reaching the German border.

In an ancient building of Merchand Taylor’s Hall the representatives of the financial advisors Deutsche Bank and Calyon, on behalf of themselves, shareholders and the management board of AWSAII, received a prestigious annual award of the reputable Janes’ Transport Finance magazine in the category of European Deal of the Year. The awarding committee of independent experts and journalists of Janes’ Transport Finance, by way of granting this award, acknowledged the fast pace of the process and the complexity of the project.

“Within less than two months we succeeded in clinching a deal worth 1.6 billion Euro”, said Robert Nowak, Vice President  Finance of the Concession Company building the motorway to Świecko. “It was an unprecedented pace of the process, which will permit us to open the road to traffic before the 2012 EURO championships”.

The Financial Close, in respect of which contracts were signed on 29 June 2009, means the final  approval of the project lenders permitting the project financing which enabled prompt commencement of construction. The funds amounting to ca. 1.6 billion EUR for the construction of the motorway to Świecko come from three sources:

• the European Investment Bank loan of EUR 1 billion (ca. 62% of the project cost),
• the loans from 11 international and Polish commercial banks of EUR 400 million (ca. 26% of the project cost); the banks granted an additional loan for the VAT expenses up to PLN 150 million. The funds for  the project were also provided by the following commercial banks: BBVA S.A., Bank Pekao S.A., BRE Bank S.A., Caja Madrid, Calyon, Deutche Bank AG, Espirito Santo Investment, KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH, PKO BP, Societe Generale, WestLB.
• equity provided by the concessionaire of EUR 186 million, i.e. ca. 12% of the total project cost, including:
          • share capital (EUR 50 million);
          • shareholder loan ( EUR 136 million)

“This award is a distinguished token of appreciation to us, said Jan Kulczyk, the main originator of the A2 motorway construction project under the Public Private Partnership in Poland. “This is also a proof that efficient cooperation is possible among the government, the private sector and the international financing institutions, with sound underlying principles, mutual respect in partnership , as well as transparency. I’d like to thank all the parties involve in the project for their effort that , in these hard times of the crisis made the impossible possible, added Jan Kulczyk.

The new section of the motorway will be of tremendous importance to the country’s economy by way of facilitating the trade exchange and mobility Between Poland and Germany. The completion and opening the road to traffic has been envisaged for early 2012.

Additional information:

Zofia Kwiatkowska, AWSA Spokesperson,
Tel.: +48 61 878 30 81
mobile phone +48 608 479 541
mail: z.kwiatkowska@awsa.pl
www.autostrada-a2.pl