Rubicon Advises BAM, PGGM and Marti Invest on the Refinancing of the Zeughausareal Burgdorf PPP Project in Switzerland
Rubicon Advises BAM, PGGM and Marti Invest on the Refinancing of the Zeughausareal Burgdorf PPP Project in Switzerland
20 February 2018. Rubicon Infrastructure Advisors (“Rubicon”) is pleased to announce that financial close has been reached on the refinancing of the Zeughausareal Burgdorf PPP Project in Switzerland (“Zeughaus”). Zeughaus is an availability-based PPP project that includes a prison, a road inspection agency and a public administration centre. The project was developed under a 25-year concession agreement granted by the Kanton Bern and has been fully operational since 2012. Zeughaus is owned by BAM PPP and PGGM through their successful joint venture BAM PPP PGGM Infrastructure Coöperatie U.A. and by Marti Invest AG, which is part of Swiss construction group Marti.
Following a competitive process conducted by Rubicon, DekaBank was selected as the mandated lead arranger to provide funding to replace the existing, floating rate loan, with a fixed rate loan and a debt service reserve facility replacing the debt service reserve account. The existing interest rate swaps were partially novated and terminated, minimising the increase in the debt volume.
“We are extremely delighted to have closed the refinancing of the only PPP project in Switzerland”, said Christian Kummert, Managing Director and Head of the Debt Advisory Team at Rubicon. “Despite the CHF currency, there was much interest from the international debt markets to participate in this robust PPP project. We are pleased to have been able to obtain significantly improved terms and conditions for our clients.”
The closing of the Zeughaus transaction represents the eighth refinancing of European PPP projects closed by Rubicon over the last sixteen months.
About Rubicon Infrastructure Advisors
With representation in Dublin, New York, Madrid and Sydney, Rubicon is a specialist investment banking firm focused solely on the global infrastructure and energy market. The firm’s team comprises industry experts with extensive experience and who have advised or structured over €200 billion worth of infrastructure transactions across multiple sectors and jurisdictions (www.rubiconinfra.com).
About BAM PPP
BAM PPP is responsible for Royal BAM Group’s involvement in public private partnership (PPP) projects. BAM PPP operates in five key European markets, the Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Ireland, Germany and is exploring new markets in addition to broader project finance investment opportunities. BAM PPP’s sector expertise includes roads, rail, education, health, justice, marine and general accommodation. BAM PPP has reached financial close on 46 projects, with a total capital value of over €7.2 billion.
BAM PPP is an operating company of Royal BAM Group, a worldwide construction services company listed at Euronext Amsterdam (www.bamppp.com).
About PGGM
PGGM is a cooperative Dutch pension fund service provider. Institutional clients are offered: asset management, pension fund management, policy advice and management support. On December 31, 2017 PGGM had EUR 218 billion in assets under management and was administrating pensions of 3 million participants. Around 725,000 workers in the Dutch healthcare are connected to PGGM&CO, our members organization. Either alone or together with strategic partners, PGGM develops future solutions by linking together pension, care, housing and work (www.pggm.nl).
About Marti
Marti Group is second largest construction contractor in Switzerland with over 6,000 employees. The companies of the Marti Group are active in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Iceland, Norway, Slovakia and China.
Recent major projects of Marti include the Belchen Tunnel in the Swiss Cantons Basel and Solothurn, the pump storage stations Linth Limmern and Nant the Drance and the Roche Tower in Basel (www.martiag.ch/en).
About Deka
DekaBank is the Wertpapierhaus (securities services provider) of the German Savings Bank Finance Group. Together with its subsidiaries it forms the Deka Group. The Deka Group has total customer assets of around EUR 283 billion and more than four million securities accounts, making it one of the largest securities services providers in Germany today. It provides retail and institutional clients access to a wide range of investment products and services. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2018 (www.deka.de/deka-group).