Bank trio to fund UK waste PFI

Spain’s BBVA and French banks Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB) and Natixis have been mandated as bookrunners and lead arrangers for £236 million (€272 million; $385 million) of senior secured credit facilities in support of the SITA South Tyne & Wear Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project in the UK.

Energy from waste: bankable

The facility – which is fully underwritten by the bookrunners and was launched into the syndication market on May 3 – will be used to finance the design, construction and operations of an energy-from-waste (EFW) plant in the northeast of England together with three associated waste transfer stations.  The EFW plant will process up to 256,000 tonnes of waste per annum and generate around 18 megawatts of net power output.      

The facility is expected to be operational in 2014.  

The project was procured by South Tyne and Wear Waste Management Partnership, comprising the three local authorities of Gateshead Council, South Tyneside Council and Sunderland City Council. It will be governed by a 28-year PFI concession agreement with a consortium comprising: SITA UK, part of French water and waste management firm Suez Environnement; Lend Lease Infrastructure Holdings, a UK subsidiary of Australian developer Lend Lease; and I-Environment Investments, a subsidiary of Japan’s ITOCHU Corporation.

Under the agreement, the local authorities will exclusively deliver waste to the waste transfer stations. It will then be transported for processing at the EFW plant, which is between 26 and 35 miles away from the stations.