Autopista al Mar 2 Secures $652 Million, Dual-Tranche, Dual Currency Project Financing

August 01, 2019

New York - Paul Hastings LLP represented the syndicate of lenders consisting of SMBC, the Colombian development institution Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional, and the Chinese development bank China Development Bank in financing the development, construction and operation of the 4G road Autopista al Mar 2 in Colombia.
Colombia's Cuarta Generacíon (4G) road infrastructure program is the largest road program in Latin America, consisting of 29 toll road projects to be constructed and operated throughout the country by various private developers, and the Autopista al Mar 2 project consists of over 254 kilometers of highways connecting the city of Medellín to the Caribbean coast. The project is being developed by China Harbour Engineering Company (a Chinese state owned enterprise) and the Colombian construction companies S.P. Ingenieros S.A.S., Unidad de Infrastructura y Construcciones Asociadas S.A.S. and Termotécnica Coindustrial S.A.S., and involves approximately US$1 billion in capex, with debt commitments of approximately US$652 million in a dual-currency COP-USD financing. This is one of the first PPP projects to be financed in Latin America with a Chinese sponsor.

The transaction required the combined efforts of attorneys in three Paul Hastings offices – New York, London and Beijing. The Paul Hastings team was led by New York Energy and Infrastructure partner Robert Kartheiser, and included New York associate Thomas Sines, foreign associate Bruna Rey and law clerk Anna Barbosa; London partners Luke McDougall and Richard Kitchen, London associates Amin Doulai, Ludovico Giannotti and Alon Blitz, Beijing partner Meka Meng and Beijing associates Berton Wang and Janet Yuan.

Paul Hastings has advised or is advising on a large number of 4G financings in Colombia, and including previously achieving financial close on the Conexión Pacífico 2, Ruta al Mar and Autopista Mar 1 4G project financings with nearly US$1.8 billion in combined debt.

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