Canada
CMS Cameron McKenna acted on the recently closed RAV (the Richmond - Airport - Vancouver rapid transit project) in British Columbia - a C$1.7bn project to provide a new rail link between Vancouver’s airport, its downtown area and the nearby city of Richmond. The firm acted for the lenders on the deal, Société Générale, Norddeutsche Landesbank and the Bank of Ireland.
The largest PPPs to close to date in Canada, the 19km RAV Line will be built and operated by SNC Lavalin Inc., and should be completed by late 2009 in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Trevor Butcher and Andrew Ivison jointly led the transaction, supported by assistants Ian Herbert, Esther Woo, Tresna Tunbridge and Carina Radford.
Trevor Butcher said: "Usually for a PPP deal, the construction will be funded by a mixture of government grant and senior debt. The government money comes from a variety of sources and this added to the complexity of the transaction. At the same time, the Canadian PPP market is still developing and there is far less standardisation than in the UK market. Our experience in the UK PFI market and on deals across Europe and elsewhere in Canada enabled us to contribute towards developing some of the innovative solutions needed to bring the deal to financial close."
Partner Carol Pennycook of Canadian law firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg advised the lenders on Canadian matters.
Poland
CMS Cameron McKenna has advised Gdańsk Transport Co. on the financing of the A1 motorway project in Poland – one of the largest project finance agreements in Central and Eastern Europe this year.
Under the €500m PPP concession agreement, Gdansk Transport Company – a Skanska-led consortium – has undertaken to finance, design, construct, operate and maintain the 90-kilometre section of road until 2039.
CMS Cameron McKenna advised Gdańsk Transport Co. on all legal matters arising out of the project. Andrew Kozlowski and Trevor Butcher led the CMS Cameron McKenna team, with assistance from Malgorzata Surdek, Wojciech Wadolowski and Michal Zieniewski from the firm’s Warsaw office and Rob Grey and Graham Cheeseman in London. Commenting on the deal, Andrew Kozlowski said: ‘CMS Cameron McKenna has a record of advising on the biggest and most pioneering deals in Central and Eastern Europe, and this is no exception. As we have seen elsewhere, the use of the PPP model enables Governments to deliver a greater number of concurrent projects, more efficiently without having to bear the financial burden from Governmental budgets.’
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