July 7, 2016
Willkie advises borrower and project sponsor (Setrag and Comilog) on the financing of the first tranche of the project for the rehabilitation and renewal of the Transgabonais railway in Gabon.
On July 5, Willkie clients Société d'Exploitation du Transgabonais (Setrag) and its parent company, Compagnie Minière de l'Ogooué (Comilog), Gabonese subsidiaries of the French mining group Eramet, announced the financing of the first tranche of the project for the rehabilitation and renewal of the Transgabonais railway in Gabon. The Transgabonais railway, commissioned in 1978, is the sole railway in Gabon, stretching across more than 660 kilometers from Owendo, a bulks port in the suburb of Libreville, to Franceville. The concession for its development and its operation was awarded by the Republic of Gabon to Setrag.
With a total capital expenditure of €236 million, the first tranche of the rehabilitation and renewal project of the Transgabonais railway will last four years. The works will be financed by €85 million in senior loans granted to Setrag by International Finance Corporation and Proparco, a subsidiary of the Agence Française de Développement, and through the granting of a participation of the Republic of Gabon for €86 million, with the balance funded through equity and quasi-equity contributions made by Comilog to Setrag and cash generated by the operation of the Transgabonais.
The project will enable the Transgabonais to meet higher performance standards and for Gabon to benefit from a competitive rail freight and passenger transportation infrastructure.
Willkie advised Setrag and Comilog with a team led by partner Amir Jahanguiri and associates Roy Charles Bates and Cédric Gamambaye Dionmou.
