Astaldi signs 5 bln dollar contract for Turkish motorway
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Astaldi signs 5 bln dollar contract for Turkish motorway

Astaldi signs 5 bln dollar contract for Turkish motorway

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(AGI) Rome, June 8 - Astaldi, one of Italy's leadingconstruction firms, signed a 5 billion dollar financingcontract for the Gebze-Orhangazi-Izmir motorway in Turkey. Theproject, which will include the world's fourth-longestsuspension bridge, entails a comprehensive investment of 6.4billion dollars and is one of the major infrastructural workscurrently underway the world over. The financing will be usedto complete the last 301 km-section connecting Bursa and Izmirand refinance the sections already under construction for theGebze-Orhangazi-Bursa connection. The contract completes thefinancing process for the entire project, rebalancing theproject's debt-equity ratio to 78/22 from the initial 50/50,without Astaldi having to make an additional equitycontribution. The pool of financing banks includes Akbank,Deutsche Bank AG London Branch, Finansbank, Garanti Bankasi,Halkbank, Bankasi, Vakifbank, Yapi Kredi and Ziraat Bankasi.The license envisages the construction of a 400 km motorway andits subsequent management, in conjunction with a group ofTurkish companies. The construction work is broken down intoseparate functional lots: a first 53 km section connectingGebze and Orhangazi, including the Izmit Bay bridge; the secondphase is split in one 25 km tract for the Orhangazi-Bursasection and another 301 km tract from Bursa to Izmir. Once itis completed, the motorway will connect Gebze (near Istanbul)to Izmir (on the Aegean coast), cutting the current eight-hourtravel time by car to a half. Astaldi has been operating inTurkey since the 1980s. It has already built a significantportion of the Anatolia motorway (116 km between Gumusova andGerede), in addition to the Istanbul metro (26 km and 16stations), which was inaugurated in August 2012, the newinternational terminal of the Milas-Bodrum Airport, whichbecame operational in May 2012 and which the Astaldi Group willmanage until October 2015, and the Halic Bridge, which wasinaugurated in March 2014. At present Astaldi is present inTurkey with a project for the construction and subsequentmanagement of the third bridge over the Bosphorus (the world'slongest and widest suspension bridge currently underconstruction) and is finalising the financing agreement for thelicensing contract of the Etlik health campus in Ankara, thelargest currently being built in Europe. . .
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