Skip to main content

Major highway improvement project on track in Colombia

In Colombia plans are now in hand for a major highway improvement project. Concesión Pacífico Tres is joint concession operator of the tolled links for Colombia’s major commercial regions connecting with the Pacific port hub. US firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy has provided advice to Colombian Concessionaire Concesión Pacífico Tres SAS and its sponsors, MHC Ingeniería y Construcción de Obras Civiles and Construcciones El Cóndor, and Costa Rica’s infrastructure company Constructora MECO. The advice was
February 29, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
In Colombia plans are now in hand for a major highway improvement project. Concesión Pacífico Tres is joint concession operator of the tolled links for Colombia’s major commercial regions connecting with the Pacific port hub. US firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy  has provided advice to Colombian Concessionaire Concesión Pacífico Tres SAS and its sponsors, MHC Ingeniería y Construcción de Obras Civiles and Construcciones El Cóndor, and Costa Rica’s infrastructure company Constructora MECO. The advice was in connection with the structuring of a dual-currency project bond and financing package consisting of two tranches of bonds used to fund an extensive toll road improvement plan in Colombia. The offering is the first debt financing of its kind tied to a toll-road concession infrastructure plan of the Colombian National Infrastructure Agency.

Pacífico Tres is the entity created in 2014 as part of a 25-year concession with Colombia’s Ministry of Transportation to rehabilitate and operate a series of highways linking three of the country’s most commercially important regions. These are Valle del Cauca, Antioquia and Eje Cafetero and will connect to the key port of Buenaventura on Colombia’s Pacific coast.  The concession operator is Conexion Pacifico 3, jointly owned by three of Colombia’s leading construction companies.

In the first part of the offering, Pacífico Tres issued a tranche of US$260.4 million of Series A notes due 2035, yielding 8.25%.  In the second portion, the company issued COP$397 billion of Series B UVR-indexed notes due 2035, yielding 7.000%.  Both transactions closed on February 22nd 2016.

Proceeds of the transaction will go toward financing key aspects of the project, including improvement of existing roads, construction of new short road stretches, as well the construction of two large tunnels and several bridges. The improvements are expected to be completed over the next five years.

The complete financing package includes three separate loan tranches along with a liquidity facility provided by Financiera de Desarrolo Nacional (FDN), a Colombian state-owned economic development bank.

Related Content

  • Columbia kick-starts Antioquia project with Toyo tunnel financing
    January 6, 2015
    Columbia’s National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) will help finance construction of the Toyo tunnel in Antioquia. The tunnel, nearly 10km-long and costing almost US$760, will be part of a new 39km road between Santa Fe de Antioquia and Canasgordas. The central government will contribute $216 million towards the project, the regional government of Antioquia will contribute $337 million and the Medellin government will pitch in with $212 million.
  • Consortia compete for Colombian construction and concession contract
    June 4, 2014
    Colombia's US$561 million Perimetral de Oriente de Cundinamarca4G highway concession package has received bids from four different consortia. Business News Amercas reports that this is the highest number of bidders that a 4G highway concession has received since the country’s national infrastructure agency, ANI, started receiving bids in April for its first wave of nine highway concessions. There were comparatively few bidders for the first three projects so ANI made a number of changes, including revising
  • Colombia highway construction projects planned
    September 28, 2017
    A series of highway and tunnel projects are planned for Colombia’s Antioquia Department. These new tunnel and highway projects form part of Colombia’s 4G infrastructure development programme. In all 19 tunnel stretches are planned for the eight highways being built in Antioquia as part of the 4G programme. The new highways are providing 28,000 jobs in all and will improve transport connections between Antioquia Department and Colombia’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
  • Colombia’s Confis approves funds for Mulalo-Loboguerrero road project
    November 25, 2013
    Colombia's fiscal policy council Confis has approved more than US$700 million of funding for the construction of the 31.8km road connecting Mulalo and Loboguerrero in Valle del Cauca. Following the fiscal approval, Treasury minister Mauricio Cardenas has given the green light to the project which will benefit over 147,000 people and create 4,773 jobs. In total, Confis has approved $2.75 billion (COP 5.3 trillion) for infrastructure projects. Some of the sum will also be invested in the connection between C