The Equitix-backed project company for the Croydon & Lewisham Street Lighting PFI project has successfully completed a refinancing of its senior debt.
Operis provided financial advisory, tax and accounting advisory and model audit services to Croydon & Lewisham Lighting Services.
Having originally reached financial close in April 2011, the project has been fully operational since November 2016. The scheme involves the replacement of 90% of the street lighting infrastructure in the London Boroughs of Croydon and Lewisham.
The existing term loan and associated facilities, provided by Lloyds Banking Group, NIBC, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB and the Swedish Export Credit Corporation were refinanced with a new senior loan of circa £70m which is being provided by Aviva Investors.
Chris Aldred, Director in the financial advisory team at Operis, said: “Operis is delighted to extend our track record of working with the Equitix team and helping to deliver refinancing savings to investors and public sector counterparties, in this case Croydon & Lewisham councils. We were particularly pleased to be able to support the deal across three of our core service lines: financial advisory, tax and accounting advisory and model audit.”
