Pi2 reaches financial close for Zaanstad Penitentiary

With the achievement of financial close, the Pi2 consortium - which comprises Ballast Nedam and Royal Imtech - has reached an important milestone, and the penitentiary will now enter construction.

The DBFMO contract with the Government Buildings Agency for the new Zaanstad Penitentiary building was signed on 2 September 2013. Pi2 is responsible for the design, construction, financing and maintenance of the new building, and also has much of the responsibility for the technical facilities for a 25-year period.

Ballast Nedam is the sole shareholder of Pi2. Ballast Nedam (65%) and Royal Imtech (35%) will participate together in the Design, Build, Maintain and perate phase. The project has a total nominal size of approximately EUR 300 million.

Ballast Nedam has opted for financing based on ING's and NIBC's PEBBLE-Commute structure,consisting of approximately EUR 195 million of debt facilities. Ballast Nedam's advisers were PwC and Allen & Overy.

ING and NIBC are to provide short-term bank debt for the project and have sourced the long term funding needs of the project from institutional investors. Appetite for the PEBBLE-Commute structure was strong, with investors keen to participate in the financing of high quality European infrastructure assets. As one of the first transactions of its kind, the PEBBLE-Commute structure brought together financing sources from the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany, ultimately providing best value financing for key Dutch infrastructure.