Richmond Bank Infrastructure Project Finance (IPF)has been approached by Bauunternehmen GmbH “Bau” as the potential lead arranger for the project financing of the Stralsund Road Tunnel. The project is in North East Germany and involves a Road tunnel under the Breiterflussriver in the centre of Stralsund and the surrounding access roads. The tunnel will cut 15 minutes off current journey times which involve using a bridge on the outskirts of the town. Bau is a large German contractor with whom we have a long term corporate and project finance relationship. Our objective is to win the mandate as Lead Arranger – probably with one other bank – and then to underwrite and syndicate the transaction.

The Project

The project will involve the design, build, operation and maintenance of a submerged tunnel and surrounding access roads under the Breiterflussriver in Stralsund, an industrial town in North East Germany. The tunnel will be a toll tunnel and will provide journey time savings of up to 10 minutes for travellers crossing the town in the peak periods. The toll is expected to be about 4 Euros for a car. Bau will be the contractor for the project under a construction contract with the project SPV on a back-to-back basis with the concession contract. Whilst similar projects have been built, submerged tunnels are reasonably technically challenging and the Breiterfluss is quite wide at this point. Initial technical due diligence suggests that the budget is reasonable and that the project planning and design are good. Sponsors’ traffic advisors have forecast 25,000 vehicles per day (vpd) increasing by 3.5% per annum. The banks’ traffic advisor has forecast just over 22,000 vpd in the banks’ base case increasing with national GDP and 19,000 vpd in the bank downside case. A capital grant towards project costs is available and the size of this is a key factor in determining the winning bidder. The sponsors propose to bid for 100m. The concession awarder is a body owned jointly by the City, Lande and German State.

The Borrower

Bau is an old and well established German contractor with whom we have had a long term corporate and project finance relationship. They have recently had some problems due to entering into a number of fixed-price projects which have led to cost over-runs and some losses but they remain a major and valued client.

The Facility

Bau seeks an 85/15 gearing basis with repayment taking place over 25 years post completion, which will follow a 5 year construction phase. A specifically designed back-ended annuity repayment profile is suggested. Sources and uses of funds are as follows:

Uses	€ M	%	Sources	€ M	%
Tunnel	250	50	State Grant	100	20
Access Roads	150	30	Equity	60	12
Financing Costs (incl.IDC)	100	20	Project Debt	340	68
TOTAL	500	100%	500	100%

Equity will be injected last and the Sponsors/SPV are seeking an Equity Bridge based on the parent corporate covenant. Pricing will be determined following the completion of our economic analysis, but we anticipate needing to offer margins around 85bp (pre completion) and 95bp (postcompletion).

We would expect to syndicate the debt to a syndicate of 8-10 project finance – particularly German Landesbanken and the likes of KfW. Discussions are proceeding with Syndications at present but we propose to charge a total front-end fee around 1.00% for structuring the transaction with an appropriate level of participation fee being paid to all club participants (including Richmond).

Project Economics

We have yet to finalise our economic analysis, but initial sensitivity running indicates that the project is robust.

Uses	Min ADSCR	Ave. ADSCR
Base Case	1.25	1.45
15% cost overrun	1.18	1.35
6- month delay in start-up	1.17	1.37
10% traffic downside	1.15	1.28
Bank downside case	1.01	1.07

Requirement

We ask for comments and approval for IPF to move forward with a full credit submission, based on Richmond Bank underwriting 50% of the debt package. Prior to proceeding to full Credit Committee we shall be required to sign an (uncommitted) letter of interest confirming our willingness to support Bau’s bid for concession. While uncommitted, and expressed to be subject to Credit Committee approval, documentation and satisfactory due diligence, there would be a reputational risk for us in our relations with Bau and in our German marketing if we did not proceed with the financing for the bid. The project appears to us however to be sufficiently strong for this not to be a major concern.

Assignment Task

You are a member of Richmond Bank’s “Peer Review” Committee, which meets weekly to review loan opportunities before they proceed to formal Credit Committee submission.

You are required to:

a) Examine and discuss the Project Financing process including the financial modelling required to support Richmond Bank’s review of the project.

b) Provide guidance to Richmond Bank on the financial attractiveness or otherwise of this project explaining the reasons and justification for your advice.

c) Provide guidance to the contract team on the key contractual areas to which they should give particular attention both financially and commercially

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

a Examine and discuss the Project Financing process including the financial modeling required to support Richmond Banks review of the project The first step in the project financing process is the ide... View the full answer