Total investment in the construction phase will be 1.358 billion dollars . Shareholders contribute a total of 197 million dollars in equity in proportion to their stake in the consortium. The remainder of the investment will be financed by bank debt and a TIFIA loan granted by the US Department of Transportation. Segments 5 and 6 of State Highway 130 (SH-130), measuring a total of 40 miles (64 kilometres), represent an alternative to the congested IH-35 between San Antonio and north Austin. The concession will be for 50 years from the end of construction (expected to take 5 years).
SH-130 Concession Company, 65% owned by Cintra, has achieved financial close for the construction and operation of segments 5 & 6 of SH-130, a 64-kilometre stretch of toll road between Austin and Seguin, Texas. Total investment in the construction phase is expected to be 1,358.3 million dollars.
The investment will be financed by:
- A 30-year 685.8 million dollar bank loan,
- A loan granted by the US Department of Transportation under the TIFIA program to encourage private-sector participation in highway road development. The loan amounts to 430 million dollars, plus 45.5 million dollars in capitalised interest during the construction phase. The duration of this loan is 35 years.
- Shareholders contributed equity in proportion to their stake in the consortium: a total of 197 million dollars. - There is also at most 65 million dollars in contingent equity for right of ways and as a liquidity facility.
The financial close corroborates the market's interest in high-quality assets. Cintra has demonstrated the success of its financial management approach in recent months by refinancing 1.175 billion Canadian dollars at 407 ETR and successfully syndicating the debt of the Ionian Roads, M-3 and Scut Açores toll road projects. In 2008, the company has to refinance only 135 million euro at Autema, a mature asset with a very low risk profile.
SH-130 will offer an alternative to Interstate 35 (IH-35) between San Antonio and north Austin, enabling medium- and long-distance traffic to bypass the highly-congested area of central Austin. The new highway will also absorb growth in long-distance truck traffic expected as a result of trade agreements between the US, Mexico and the Central American countries.
SH-130, whose first four segments are operated by the State of Texas, is a road with considerable growth capacity as it is part of one of the main north-south corridors in the US. The population of Texas has been growing at a rate of 2% per year since 1990. And the Texas Gross State Product (GSP) grew by 4.3% per year in real terms between 1995 and 2005, outstripping the US as a whole.
Cintra, one of the world's largest private-sector transport infrastructure developers Cintra, a subsidiary of Grupo Ferrovial, is one of the world's leading private-sector developers of transport infrastructure, with over 16 billion euro in managed investments. Cintra has 23 toll road concessions totalling 2,841 kilometres in Canada, the USA, Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Chile. Cintra is also Spain's leading car park operator, managing over 266,000 parking spaces.
