NEW YORK, September 30, 2011 – International law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, led by Global Project Finance Group co-chair and partner Jonathan Green, represented the lenders in connection with the financing of the 40-year toll concession of the PR-22 and PR-5 toll roads in Puerto Rico. The concession was awarded in June 2011 to a consortium composed of Abertis Infraestructuras, S.A. (“Abertis”) and Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners II, L.P. (“Goldman Sachs”). The consortium paid Puerto Rico a concession fee of approximately $1.13 billion. The concession includes the obligation to expand and modernize, as well as maintain and operate, the roads and provides the concessionaire the right to receive toll revenues for the next forty years.
“Milbank is proud to have played a role in the closing of this important infrastructure project, which signifies a major success for Puerto Rico's public-private partnership program,” commented Mr. Green. “The project highlights the attractiveness and stability of Puerto Rico’s economy, and is one of the first major traffic-based infrastructure projects to be successfully financed in North America since the financial crisis. It demonstrates that major toll road concessions in North America can be successful for all parties when they combine a committed and serious governmental authority with world class owners and operators of infrastructure assets and sophisticated providers of financing.”
PR-22 is 51 miles in length and heads west from San Juan along the north coast of the island to Hatilo. It is Puerto Rico’s busiest highway and ranges from 12 lanes in San Juan to 4 lanes. The concessionaires plan to extend the toll road 27 miles west to Aguadilla on the west coast. PR-5 is a 2.5-mile urban expressway extending the PR-22 towards Bayamon within the San Juan metro area and provides connections to Puerto Rico’s other expressways.
Additional Milbank attorneys involved in this transaction include partner Eric Moser and associates James Orme, Roland Estevez, Ken Sanocki, Brian Lee and Jerry Wang.
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