The City of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, through its financial advisor PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), has disclosed financial details about the recently achieved financial close (Feb. 4th) for the City's Safe Clean Drinking Water PPP project.

As we reported in mid February, Port City Water Partners was awarded to design, build, finance, operate and maintain (DBFOM) the new water treatment plant on the City's East side under a 33 year agreement. Additionally, Port City Water Partners will also design, build and finance 20 kms of pipeline to renew the City's water transmission and distribution system.

Port City Water Partners is a consortium composed of:

• Brookfield Financial Corp., a global investment bank,
• Spain's Acciona Agua,
• North America Construction Ltd.
• AMEC Environment and Infrastructure
• Engineering company Dessau Inc.
• Quebec's Simo Management Inc.
• FCC Construction
• Local civil construction firm Gulf Operators

Port City Water Partners’ financing plan, which was recently approved, includes the following:

• Equity in the amount of CAD10.7 million (US$8.3 million) to be invested at the end of the construction period.
• A revolving bank loan of CAD116.6 million (US$90 million) to be used during the construction period and fully repaid by substantial completion  with an interest rate of 1.559% provided by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
• A long-term amortizing bond, in the amount of CAD25.4 million (US$20 million), which will be issued at financial close and repaid at the end of the 30 year operating period with an interest rate of 4.456% provided by Sun Life Financial.

It has also been revealed that the total cost of undertaking the project through a PPP procurement approach is estimated at CAD254.4 million (US$197 million). Additionally, the financial details have revealed a value for money (VFM) of CAD24.1 million (US$19 million) by undertaking the project as a PPP instead of a traditional procurement approach.