Published: August 18, 2009
The Polish minister of infrastructure, Autostrada Wielkopolska S.A. II, the European Investment Bank and Deutsche Bank have officially signed agreements in Warsaw for the €1.6bn financing of the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the 105km A2 motorway section Nowy Tomysl – Swiecko (at the German-Polish border). Deutsche Bank acted as financial advisor to AWSA II.
This agreement, signed at the end of June, will allow construction to go ahead and to be completed in time for the EURO 2012 football championships, linking the A2 (and Warsaw via Berlin) with the Western European motorway network. Strabag, Meridiam Infrastructure, Kulczyk Holding and KWM Investment are the project sponsors and shareholders of AWSA II.
Deutsche Bank had already successfully advised on an ancillary 150km A2 Motorway section. Thomas Rueschen, global head of asset finance and leasing, says: "Given visibility and importance of this transaction it will further boost Deutsche Bank's infrastructure business with leading contractors and institutional investors."
Bernd Fislage, head of project and capital advisory, adds: "Our first-class client and product franchise enabled us to play a much larger role by providing advisory, underwriting, derivative and GTB services to the success of the project. This has been demonstrated by the sponsors' further request for Deutsche Bank to look at alternative restructuring solutions on the existing debt facilities currently in place for section I of the A2 Motorway."
The project funds of €1.6bn primarily come from three sources: a 27 year €1bn senior loan facility from EIB; a 20 year €400mn senior commercial loan facility from nine commercial banks, BBVA, Caja Madrid, Calyon, Deutsche Bank, BES, KfW IPEX-Bank, Unicredit, SG and WestLB; and €185mn of equity and shareholder loans. A Zl150mn VAT loan facility will also be provided by Bre Bank, PKO Bank Polski and Unicredit. The transaction was heavily oversubscribed and ticket sizes reduced considerably. Deutsche Bank will furthermore be acting as facility agent.
The transaction is part of the strategic Trans European Network (TEN), connecting Berlin to Warsaw en route to Moscow, bridging the existing motorway section to the German border.