November 2019 - Astris Finance is pleased to announce the closing and first disbursement of the USD 860m senior debt package for the Ferrocarril Central project (the “Project”) sponsored by Sacyr (Spain), NGE (France), SACEEM (Uruguay) and Berkes (Uruguay) (the “Sponsors”). Astris acted as exclusive financial advisor to the Sponsors from bid stage to first disbursement.

The Project consists of the design, construction, financing, rehabilitation and maintenance of a 273 km railroad under an 18-year PPP contract. The Project will connect a new, world-class eucalyptus pulp mill to be built in the central region of Paso de los Toros by Finnish firm UPM, a world leader in environmentally responsible pulp products, with the port of Montevideo. The pulp mill and the connected infrastructure will require an investment in excess of USD 3 billion, one of the largest private investments ever in Uruguay. The Ferrocarril Central Project itself costs more than USD 1 billion.

Astris was mandated by the Sponsors in January 2018. We worked with the Sponsor team to put together a comprehensive financing strategy, looking at every potentially available source of long-term liquidity. The bid was submitted in May 2018 and the PPP contract with the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works was signed in May 2019. The senior debt package was signed on 21 October 2019.

The senior debt package consists of three facilities with an aggregate amount of USD 860m and a door-to-door maturity of 17 years:

A USD 300m A loan provided by IDB Invest, coupled with a USD 160 m B loan provided by SMBC and Intesa San Paolo;
A USD 85m parallel loan from regional development lender CAF; and
A local currency loan of UI 2,700m (i.e. USD 315m equivalent) provided by a dedicated fund raised and managed by CAF-AM, the asset management arm of CAF.

Fabrice Henry, CEO of Astris Finance, stated: “This project illustrates one of the situations in which Astris excels: working hand in hand with the Sponsor team throughout the Project development cycle to identify, structure and close a complex, multi-tranche financing. In doing so, we focus on a dual objective: maximizing sponsor value while minimizing execution risk. We are very happy we were able to close such an innovative project finance package in such a tight timeframe. We are thankful for the great collaboration with all stakeholders including the Sponsors, the lenders and the Government. We wish them all the best in the construction of this vital Project.”