Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises a consortium of leading entities in the infrastructure sector on the refinancing of the concessionaire of Line 9 Section 2 of the Barcelona Metro

Clifford Chance has advised a consortium of leading entities in the infrastructure sector formed by ACS-Iridium Group, Queenspoint (a PPP platform owned by Allianz Capital Partners and Danish pension fund Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegpension (ATP) and infrastructure funds Dalmore Capital and Equitix, in one of the largest transport deals to complete in Spain in recent years. The deal involved raising roughly EUR 725m of debt to refinance existing loans provided by commercial banks over a decade ago to finance the construction of Line 9 Section 2 of the Barcelona Metro.

This is the largest refinancing to date for a transport concession project in Catalonia. Despite expectations that local banks would be most comfortable with Catalonia counterparty risk, the project’s cash flow and good financials have driven strong interest from significant institutional investors from Europe and North America.

The deal was led by partner Guillermo Guardia, with support from Carl Fitzgerald, James Rodier, Carme Briera, José María Vilaseca, Isabella Lessi and Francisco Ruiz. A London team led by Partner Anne Drakeford and associates Ariel Sittner and Seun Onasanya assisted the consortium on the hedging documentation.