Holland & Knight Advises Colombia's Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional as Credit Enhancement Providers for Pacífico 3 Toll Road Project

BOGOTA and NEW YORK (February 22, 2016) – Holland & Knight recently advised Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional (FDN), Colombia's infrastructure development bank, to structure a secured credit enhancement line of credit for the fourth generation (4G) toll road project Pacífico 3. This was the first 4G financing to close and the first credit enhancement transaction for FDN.

The final structure, arranged by Goldman Sachs & Co., includes seven tranches of senior secured debt. The financing is one of the first international project bonds in Colombia.

The Pacífico 3 project entails work on a 146-km stretch of highway in the Antioquia department of Colombia that is scheduled to take five years at a cost of more than US$850 million. Over the next eight years, 4G is expected to deliver 7,000 km of roads in three waves via public-private partnerships, requiring an investment of US$14.1 billion.

Holland & Knight partner Norberto Quintana, based in Miami and New York, noted that, "We are extremely happy to have assisted FDN with structuring the financing necessary to move ahead with this important road project. It was a very complex matter that required the expertise of many of our lawyers in several different practice areas. It was a real team effort to serve our client."