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

  • Argentina sets out major road development plan
    November 24, 2017
    Argentina is setting out a major road development programme. The country has plans for 16 key road projects, with road building and development plans for some 7,000km of routes in all. Called the new Safe Motorway and Road Network, the programme will be worth an impressive US$16.7 billion. The first six of the planned routes will be developed under the PPP model. A portion of the construction work will be paid for through special taxes on fuel.
  • ANI to auction 13 Colombian road projects in H1 2014
    September 24, 2013
    Colombia's national infrastructure agency ANI will auction 13 road projects with a combined value of more than US$7.87 billion (COP 15 trillion) in H1 2014, out of 40 planned. Nine of the scheduled auction projects have gone through the pre-qualification stage and will be definitely awarded in the first quarter of next year. In total, all 40 projects will involve investments of COP 47tn. The plan is to improve 8,000kms of roads in the country.
  • New Colombian highways being built
    April 26, 2021
    New Colombian highways are being built at present.
  • Colombian dual carriageway contract signed
    September 8, 2022
    An important Colombian dual carriageway contract has been signed.