Brussels, 29/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank agreed on Thursday 28 July to provide finance of €552.5 million for the Brittany-Pays de la Loire high-speed train line. This is one of the largest rail projects in France. After five years of design and construction, it will significantly open up the whole of the west of France. The journey from Paris to Rennes will take less than three hours.
The EIB funding will be made available at the end of the period of construction of the high-speed line (LGV), making it possible to refinance part of the debt made available to commercial lenders during the construction phase. It will represent 54% of the senior debt during the period of operation of the service. The funding will also benefit from a “Dailly” assignment of professional debt.
A little more than one month after the signing of the South Europe Atlantic LGV, for which the EIB pledged to provide €1.2 billion - the largest ever public-private partnership (PPP) by the EIB in France - the Bank believes that, with this latest initiative, it has confirmed “its ability to become involved in large scale projects on modernising and extending trans-European networks (TEN) by means of innovative and competitive financing instruments”. Since January 2011, the EIB has put more than €1.9 billion into PPPs and transport in France.
The EIB decided to devote at least €75 billion to trans-European transport projects between 2004 and 2013. In 2010, it lent €8.1 billion in support of TEN-T projects and major transport routes. The EIB's massive support for the innovative funding of PPPs has seen overall finance of €26.8 billion provided between 2000 and 2010. (O.L./transl.rt)