The sponsors of the Sheffield Highways PFI project; Amey Ventures, Equitix and Uberior, successfully refinanced the outstanding senior debt on December 14, 2016. The project, which involves the refurbishment and maintenance of 1,900km of road, 3,300km of footway, 500 traffic signals, 68,000 streetlights and over 18,000 items of street furniture in Sheffield, reached financial close in 2012. Sheffield County Council, the procuring authority, have 21 years of unitary charge payments remaining in the concession.
The original senior debt has been completely refinanced by a new banking group consisting of The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, CaixaBank, DZ BANK AG, Nord/LB Luxembourg Covered Bond Bank, Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale and Shinsei Bank.
On behalf of the project sponsors, Operis were pleased to conduct an audit of the financial model including a review of the tax and accounting treatments.
