Calyon acted as mandated lead arranger and facility agent for a major infrastructure project in Slovakia, amounting EUR 1,016 million. Calyon was one of the seven coordinating banks alongside BBVA, Société Générale, Dexia, Unicredit, KfW, and BayernLB taking a role of documentation bank. A total of 12 commercial banks (Bayern, BBVA, BNP Paribas, Calyon, Dexia, Erste, ING, KfW, Natixis, NIBC, Société Générale, Unicredit) and EBRD participated in this high profile EUR 1,016 million financing. This financing includes a EUR 984 million term loan and a EUR 32 million VAT facility.

Calyon’s final commitment is EUR 85 million of the loans (8.6%).

The transaction is the first road Public Private Partnership (PPPPublic-Private Partnership describes a government service or private business venture which is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies.) in Slovakia and as such is viewed as a benchmark infrastructure deal, notably for PPP deals in Central Europe. It was hence a key focus for the banks active in the sector, for the central European governments (especially Slovakia and Czech Republic) and for Vinci as a concessionaire.

The project covers financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of a 2x2 lane highway with a total length of 52 kilometres to the east of Bratislava. The highway will link the cities of Nitra and Tekovské Nemce. It also includes the bypass of the city of Banská Bystrica. The works, which will take 41 months to complete, have a value of nearly EUR 900 million.

It will be carried out by GRANVIA Construction, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eurovia CS (Vinci Group).In March 2009, the Slovak Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications named the company concession holder, GRANVIA a.s., made up of Vinci Concessions (50%) and Meridiam Infrastructure (50%).