The syndicate comprising Raiffeisen Austria bank and the American investment bank Bear Stearns won the tender for the first two years of funding the over 2.6bn-euro contract closed by the Romanian authorities with the American Bechtel company for building the Brasov-Bors motorway, banking sources told Ziarul Financiar. The contract awarded to Bechtel without a tender by the Romanian authorities has attracted the dissatisfaction of the European Union, which had another project in mind.
Twelve US and European banks submitted bids for a total funding of 469 million euros, 152 million euros of which are secured by US' Eximbank and the remaining 317 million euros are in form of a ten-year commercial loan, with a grace period of four years. The Finance Ministry is to issue state guarantees for the commercial credit.
"For the 2004-2005 funding, the Transports Ministry got financial offers from 6 syndicates of top international banks: Raiffeisen-Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank - JP Morgan, Citibank - ABN Amro, ING - BRD (Societe Generale), UBS Wartburg - Royal Bank of Scotland, HVB - Alpha Bank, which are being analysed at the moment," the Ministry officials specified.
The Romanian State will bear the full project funding costs, which revolve around 3.4bn euros. The funding secured by US Eximbank is contracted at the market risk of the American market, that is at lower interests than the funding contracted at the risk of the Romanian market. The US Eximbank's guarantees for this project amount to some $800 million, US Embassy sources in Bucharest say. Bechtel and Turkish constructor Enika will build the Brasov-Bors motorway, which runs alongside the route of another highway, Bucharest-Arad-Nadlac, a project agreed upon with the European Union.
The Brasov-Bors motorway is scheduled for construction throughout 2004-2012, with 8,000 jobs created as a result, the project's supporters say.
Yesterday, another scandal related to this affair broke out on the market. A recently endorsed Government decision stipulates 3,288bn ROL (82.2 million euros) will be redistributed from seven ministries to the Transports Ministry in support of the funding for the Brasov-Bors motorway. The Finance Ministry says Article 40 in the 2004 State Budget Law allows redistributing money from external funds, in line with the priorities set by the Government throughout the year.
adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro ; razvan.voican@zf.ro
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