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FSA Guarantees Sanef and SAPN Loans
London, July 27, 2007 - Aaa/AAA/AAA financial guarantor Financial Security Assurance (FSA) has guaranteed €750 million of 17-year fixed rate loans to French motorway operator Sanef and its subsidiary Société des Autoroutes Paris-Normandie (SAPN), representing half of a €1.5 billion monoline-insured loan facility guaranteed by FSA and MBIA to be drawn down over a nine-year period. FSA guarantees timely payment of scheduled principal and interest to the lenders. The financing was arranged by Dexia Crédit Local and BNP Paribas.
Proceeds of the loans will refinance future principal repayments to Caisse Nationale des Autoroutes (CNA), the state-owned French motorway financing vehicle, and to finance future capital expenditures.
"These guaranteed loans assure the Sanef group of predictably priced, long-term funding without an early redemption of its CNA debt, which would have entailed prohibitive breakage costs," said Philippe Benaroya, a director in FSA's Paris office. "By combining the FSA guaranty with bank loans, the borrowers were able to achieve a competitive funding cost while benefiting from the delayed drawdown schedule. The transaction illustrates how monolines can help French motorway operators find new funding solutions as their access to CNA funding is phased out over the next few years."
French motorway concessionaires will not be able to borrow from CNA after 2010 and, until then, will be able to borrow only as long as 2018. Sanef and SAPN hold two concessions through 2028.
Ranked fourth in the motorway sector in Europe, the Sanef group operates and provides maintenance for a 1,743 kilometer network of French motorways in the North (A1, A2, A16), the East (A4, A26) and Normandy (A13, A14, A29). It has been in business for more than 30 years and owns four of the six motorways that serve Paris. Its mature network provides important links to major European cities, French ports, the Eurotunnel terminal and Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport. Since its privatization in early 2006, Sanef has been fully owned by Holding d'Infrastructures de Transport S.A.S., a consortium led by Abertis Infraestructuras S.A. of Spain and including several French sponsors. Sanef is rated Single-A by Standard & Poor's.
About FSA
Financial Security Assurance Holdings Ltd. (the Company), headquartered in New York City, is a holding company whose affiliates provide financial guarantees and financial products to clients in both the public and private sectors around the world. The principal operating subsidiary, Financial Security Assurance Inc., is a leading guarantor of public finance and asset-backed obligations. Financial Security Assurance (U.K.) Limited is a U.K.-licensed subsidiary of Financial Security Assurance Inc. Guarantees issued by these subsidiaries carry Triple-A ratings, the highest ratings available, from Fitch Ratings, Moody's Investors Service, Inc., Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and Rating and Investment Information, Inc. The Company is a member of the Dexia group.