Luxembourg , 07/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) is supporting the modernisation of London Underground with a long-term £900 million (EUR 1.3 bn) loan facility. £300 million (EUR 436 m) was made available to the Tubelines -sponsored Infraco JNP at the end of 2002 and £600 million was pledged on 4 April at the financial close of the Metronet transactions (Infracos BCV and SSL).
Each Infraco will under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) promoted by London Underground Limited improve, refurbish and modernise their respective parts of the underground network. Infraco BCV is responsible for the Bakerloo, Central, Victoria and Waterloo&City lines while Infraco SSL is responsible for the Circle, District, Metropolitan, East London and Hammersmith&City lines and Infraco JNP for Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines.
The three Infracos are responsible for maintaining, renewing and upgrading the infrastructure of the underground network while London Underground Ltd. remains responsible for train operations, customer services at stations and fare collection as well as overall safety. Metronet Rail BCV Holdings and Metronet Rail SSL Holdings, the ultimate owners of the Infraco BCV and SSL, are each owned 20% by Bombardier Transportation UK Ltd., WS Atkins plc, Balfour Beatty plc, SEEBOARD plc and Thames Water plc. The £600 million EIB facilities form part of the £2.65 billion (EUR 3.85 billion) senior debt funding package. The other senior debt is provided by a syndicate of banks led by Deutsche Bank, CIBC World Markets, Royal Bank of Scotland and Abbey National, and both a fixed-rate and index-linked bond issues wrapped by Ambac and FSA. The £300 million EIB term loan facility is one of the £1.94 billion (EUR 2.82 billion) senior debt facilities. The rest of the senior debt is provided by a syndicate of banks, led by Bank of Scotland, WestLB, Mizuho and Societe Generale. A portion of the bank term loan is wrapped by Ambac.