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The Windsor Essex Mobility Group consortium, with ACCIONA Infrastructure, ACS Group and Fluor having equal shares, has refinanced the Rt. Honorable Herb Gray Parkway, also known as Windsor Essex Parkway in Canada.

The official financial closure is expected on October 11.

The refinancing has been structured as an issue in the private bond market, directed directly by ACS along with its partners in the dealership, to Canadian and American pension funds and insurance companies. The new financial structure will consist of preferential bonds for CAD210 million (US$167 million) and a term of 22 years. The Project has obtained an A2 rating granted by Moody's, with the highest rating of P3 infrastructure projects in North America to date.

The 6-lane, 11-kilometer project with and 4-lane, 7-kilometer service roadway, and a total investment of US$1.1 billion, opened to traffic in June 2015. Since then, the concessionary company has been carrying out operations and maintenance activities. Once the construction is completed, and being this the third year of operations, the concessionary company, following the agreement with the Province of Ontario, proceeded to carry out the refinancing of the debt whose goal was to improve the debt conditions compared to those obtained in the original financing of 2010.

The following banks provided financing for the Parkway during construction: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas, Caja Madrid, Banesto, Crédit Agricole CIB, Dexia Crédit Local, ING Capital, Santander, Société Générale, and WestLB AG.

The project was delivered by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure Ontario through an Alternative Financing and Procurement model under a design, build, finance and maintain contract with the Windsor Essex Mobility Group.

The Rt. Hon. Herb Gray Parkway is the most significant single highway investment the province has made in Ontario’s history and it will provide a major boost to the local and regional economies. 

Each year more than 12 million cars, trucks and buses, and nearly US$120 billion worth of goods, flow between Canada and the U.S. through the Windsor-Detroit corridor alone, making this location the most economically significant border crossing in North America.