Holland & Knight advised Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional (FDN), Colombia's infrastructure development bank, in connection with the Conexión Norte project financing, which is part of Colombia’s fourth generation (4G) road infrastructure plan. Autopistas del Nordeste, the concessionaire of the project, received financing in the form of two tranches, including a $250 million credit line from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Korea Development Bank, Banco de Crédito del Perú and Instituto de Crédito Oficial.
FDN, Banco Davivienda, and Bancolombia provided $520 billion Colombian pesos in the second tranche, with FDN providing an additional liquidity facility worth $80 billion Colombian pesos. The transaction closed on July 28.
The Conexión Norte project involves the construction of 58 kilometers and improvement of 82 kilometers of road between the municipalities of Remedios, Zaragoza and Caucasia in Colombia’s Department of Antioquia.
Holland & Knight has advised on three additional 4G projects this year, including the Costera Cartagena-Baranquilla, Perimetral Oriental de Bogotá and Pacifico 3 road projects. Over the next eight years, 4G is expected to deliver 7,000 kilometers of roads through a series of public-private partnerships, requiring an investment of $14.1 billion.
Holland & Knight Partner Norberto E. Quintana, in New York and Miami, led the team of lawyers advising FDN. The team included Partner Enrique Gómez-Pinzón and Associates Juliana Saa and Lucas Saffon in Bogotá, Associate Laura Guemes in New York, and foreign visiting attorney Mariana Guzian in Miami.