Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On November 30, 2021, a syndicate of 14 lenders — including the Bank of China (BOC) and China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB) — entered into a €1,174,000,000 EUR ($1.32609 billion USD) syndicated debt agreement with Concessió Estacions Aeroport L9, S.A. (CEAL9) — a Spain-incorporated special purpose vehicle (SPV) and joint venture of VICOS, S.à r.l. of French asset management company Vauban Infrastructures Partners (49% ownership stake), Aberdeen Asset Managers Ltd of Aberdeen Standard Investments (36% ownership stake), and COPISA Concesiones S.A., a subsidiary of Spanish construction company Grupo Empresarial Copisa, S.A. (15% ownership stake) — for the Barcelona Metro Line 9/Section 1 (L9T1) 2021 Refinancing Project. This debt consisted of a €584.00 million EUR ($659.66 million USD) senior term loan tranche with a maturity period of 10 years, a final maturity date of December 13, 2031, an interest rate based on a floating rate, and a full amortization repayment profile with semi-annual installments; and a €590.00 million EUR ($666.43 million USD) Spanish law bond issuance structured and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange with a maturity period of 16 years, a final maturity date of December 13, 2037, and a a repayment profile with semi-annual installments. Catalonian state-owned enterprise Infraestructures Ferroviàries de Catalunya (Ifercat) issued a guarantee for this debt. Financial close was reached on December 13, 2021. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower for the refinancing of the existing debt of CEAL9 via a full take-out of existing debt, payment of the breakage costs, and elimination of cash sweep. CEAL9 is the concessionaire of the Line 9, Section I (L9T1) of the Barcelona Metro network, which connects the city centre to the Barcelona airport and became operational in 2016. CEAL9 is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the metro stations of L9T1, with a 20 years remaining on its concession that had been awarded via a public-private partnership (PPP) framework by the Government of Catalonia. This was the largest refinancing of a transport concession in Catalonia to date. BOC contributed €20.00 million EUR ($22.59 million USD) and CCB contributed €60.50 million EUR ($68.34 million USD) to the €584 million EUR term loan. Record ID#102246 captures BOC's contribution. Record ID#102247 captures CCB's contribution. In addition to BOC and CCB, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: Royale Infrastructure Opportunistics Loans (€3.30 million EUR; $3.73 million USD), SCOR Infrastructure Loans IV (€16.70 million EUR; $18.86 million USD), Cosmic Blue PF Lotus (€5.00 million EUR; $5.65 million USD), Cosmic Blue PF Magnolia (€15.00 million EUR; $16.94 million USD), Allied Irish Banks p.l.c. (AIB) (€40.00 million EUR; $45.18 million USD), Banco de Crédito Social Cooperativo (€60.50 million EUR), Banco de Sabadell S.A. (€40.00 million EUR; $45.18 million USD), Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (BBVA) (€91.00 million EUR; $102.79 million USD), BNP Paribas S.A. (€20.00 million EUR), CaixaBank S.A. (€91.00 million EUR), Hamburg Commercial Bank (HSOB) (€60.50 million EUR), and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) (€60.50 million EUR).