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BreBeMi's balloon goes up on Italian PPP

19 May 2009

The BreBeMi project pushes the build-now-pay-later ethos of PPPs further than any other deal closed to date. Could this be the solution to Italy's slate of perennially-delayed transport projects? Paul Smith reports.

Read more: [PPP] [project finance] [brebemi] [livorno lng] [sorgenia]

Participants in the Italian PPP sector are used to false hope. Eight years ago a piece of legislation, the Legge Obiettivo, was supposed to herald the dawn of consistent PPP deal flow by giving priority to key transport infrastructure projects and streamlining their permitting process.

Unfortunately the Legge Obiettivo did not counter the capricious effects of litigation from local bodies and losing bidders, a lack of public funds or changes in subsequent legislation, so projects continued to be stuck in a typically Italian quagmire. Aside from a few construction financings for highways under Italy's general contractor provisions – most notably three sections of the Salerno-Reggio-Calabria highway – and a clutch of four hospitals, the reality fell far short of the expectation.

Fast forward eight years, however, and Italy is on the cusp of closing financing for four or five large road projects, which has come about more by the passage of time...


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