White & Case Advises on the A63 Public-Private Partnership

Paris, January 25, 2011 ... The Paris Energy, Infrastructure, Project and Asset Finance group of White & Case advised a pool of eight international banks, comprising the European Investment Bank, supporting the winning bidding consortium ATLANDES, rewarded by the French State with the A63 motorway concession contract. This forty years public-private partnership involves the expanding of the existing section and the construction of a new section of the A 63 motorway, between Salles and Saint-Geours-de-Maremne in France, and its financing, operation, and maintenance.

ATLANDES is a consortium led by Colas Sud-Ouest (part of Bouygues company) and composed of SCREG Sud-Ouest, Spie batignolles, NGE, EGIS Projects, HSBC European Motorway Investments and DIF Infrastructure II BV.

The financing was in excess of €940 million including 7 tranches of debt with a maturity of 25 years for the senior ones.

The White & Case team, coordinated by Victoria Westcott (Project and Asset Finance partner) and Jacques Bouillon (Project and Asset Finance partner, specialised in Construction and Public Law) was composed of Paule Biensan, partner, François-Guilhem Vaissier, Amadou Soumano, Elisa Carneiro de Moraes, Florent Rigaud and Jonathan Djenaoussine, associates.

The team of White & Case in Paris, which also includes Paule Biensan, partner, is currently consulting banks for large scale infrastructure projects already assigned, including SEA and Ecotaxe, and others still unassigned, such as the Ballard project. 

• The consortium's advice: Gide Loyrette Nouel (Bénédicte Mazel, Marie Bouvet-Guiramand, Mathilde Bonnet, Estelle Carrère-Ricome and Charlotte Préaux) 
• The special counsel of the European Investment Bank: De Pardieu Brocas Maffei (Jean-Renaud Cazali, Olivier Schmitt, Antoine Payen and Elias Berkani) 
• The State's advice: Clifford Chance (Daniel Zerbib, David Préat, Benjamin de Blégiers, Gauthier Martin)

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