Milbank Represents Lenders in Financing of the Port of Miami Tunnel
Consortium Closes $900 Million Financing for Landmark P3 Project
NEW YORK, October 15, 2009 – Global law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP represented a consortium of 10 international banks in the $900 million financing for the construction of the Port of Miami Tunnel Project, a public-private partnership (P3) among the Florida Department of Transportation, Miami-Dade County, the City of Miami, and the Miami Access Tunnel (MAT) consortium, the private concessionaire selected by the State of Florida to build and maintain the new tunnel. This complicated and high profile transaction reached financial close today after several years of bids, negotiations, planning and collaboration among the federal, state and local governments, and the project sponsors, lenders and contractors.
Allan T. Marks, partner in Milbank’s Global Project Finance Group, led the Milbank team that represented the banks in structuring, negotiating and closing the financing. The bank group comprised BNP Paribas (Administrative Agent), the Royal Bank of Scotland (Collateral Agent), BBVA (Documentation Agent), Calyon, Dexia, Grupo Santander, ING, Société Générale, UniCredit Group and WestLB. The banks provided over $340 million of senior secured loans for the project, with co-financing provided by a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The project sponsors were French investment fund Meridiam Infrastructure and French construction company Bouygues Travaux Publics, each of which are contributing equity to the project. Additional support for the project was provided by the state and local governments in a true public-private partnership, allocating key risks to the private sector to ensure on-time, on-budget delivery of this critical project to serve the port and relieve traffic congestion in Miami.
“The completion of this landmark transaction, which is the first greenfield public-private partnership project in the United States to be financed on the basis of availability payments from a government agency, shows that – with the right project, a coordinated effort by state and local governments, experienced banks and advisors, and tenacious private sponsors – big infrastructure deals can still get done even in this challenging economic environment,” said Milbank’s Marks. “Additionally, it shows that foreign investors remain confident about the U.S. market. Open and productive dialogue between the public and private sectors can lead to practical solutions to increase mobility in a way that is accountable and that serves the goals of all parties and the public interest.”
The scope of the project includes the design and construction of a new tunnel, including roadway improvements and expansion of the MacArthur Causeway bridge, as well as operation and maintenance of the tunnel for 35 years after it opens to traffic. Once completed, the tunnel will connect the Port of Miami to Interstate 395, helping to alleviate traffic jams at the port and through downtown Miami streets where trucks currently pass on their way in and out of the port.
The financial close represents nearly three years of work on the Port of Miami Tunnel project for the Milbank team, which, in addition to Mr. Marks, included tax partner Mark Regante, environmental partner Lewis Putman, project finance associates Rebecca Campbell, James Orme, Tope Adesanya, Michael Dayen, Shae Harvey, Hayes Robbins, Anne Shutkin, and Timothy Wendling, and finance associates Peter Devonshire and Jeeseon Ahn.
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a preeminent global law firm that for more than 140 years has provided innovative legal solutions to many of the world’s largest, most complex, “first-ever” corporate transactions and litigation. The firm’s transactional expertise includes capital markets, corporate finance and transactions, project finance, acquisition finance, and other major fields of law practice. Milbank litigation teams resolve disputes involving mergers and acquisitions, proxy battles, financings and securities offerings, intellectual property, white-collar crime, and corporate restructurings, among others. The firm’s clients range from prominent multinational financial, industrial and commercial enterprises to governments, institutions and individuals. The Firm is headquartered in New York, with offices in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, London, Frankfurt, Munich, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Beijing.