Financial close for Limmel lock PPP
Keersluis Limmel Company (KLC) has reached financial close for the Limmel Lock PPP project on the Juliana Canal in southern Netherlands.
KLC, which was awarded the project in early December 2014, is a consortium composed by BESIX (66,5%) and Rebel (33,5%).
The senior funders on the project are KBC and AG insurance.Mott MacDonald was lender's technical advisor to the KLC on the project. Mott MacDonald provided due diligence and technical reports to support financial close and will now monitor construction in an ongoing role to help the project stay on programme and budget.
The Limmel Lock project is the first project of the PPP sea locks programme in the Netherlands. It is also the first dike in the world to be developed and operated thought a PPP scheme.
The Juliana canal is an important navigational route between Limmel (near Maastricht) and Maasbracht. As a result of broadening and deepening of the canal, larger barges will be able to use this route in the future. In order to give these larger barges access to the Juliana canal, the Limmel lock will be replaced by a new lock. The current lock does not meet the demands of modern large barges using the Dutch canals.
The project will be developed on a design, build, finance and management (DBFM) basis. The contract period is 30 years.
The total project investment is estimated at €35 million (US$39.8 million).
The new Limmel Lock is expected to be complete in 2018.
Hidde Siemonsma, financial manager at Keersluis Limmel Company, stated:
"Mott MacDonald did an excellent job of informing the lenders on the risk profile of the project. This was particularly challenging as the contractual project finance framework, including the amended design, build, finance and maintain agreement, was market tested for the first time on this project. As a result, we were comfortable that the lenders had a thorough understanding of the project and did not see major obstacles providing the debt financing."
Joost van Loon, Mott MacDonald's project director, commented:
"This project builds on Mott MacDonald's previous infrastructure experience in the Netherlands and Belgium, where we are one of the leading providers of technical advice having worked on over 20 PPP schemes."
