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Tours-Bordeaux HSR grapples with political and grantor wrangling
17 May 2011
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The financing for the Tours-Bordeaux high-speed rail PPP, has proved a real test to France’s maturing PPP market, following Vinci’s selection as preferred bidder in March 2010. The owner of the French rail network Reseau Ferre de France (RFF) had planned to reach financial close by 31 December at the latest, but marshalling the complex mix of state subsidy and guarantees with both multilateral and commercial debt has seen the process spill over into 2011.
There is a general consensus that RFF has bitten off more than it can chew for its first proper HSR tender. The deal is not only notable for its unprecedented size, around Eu8 billion ($11.3 billion), but also for eschewing the usual availability-based Dailly mechanism in favour of demand risk.
Grantor and lenders are now tentatively putting forward 15 June as the expected date of financial close. Commercial banks are lending around...
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