HSH Nordbank, Germany, is lead arranger to finance the £1.6bn deal which has a 22.5-year maturity. HSH Nordbank, which specialising in funding complex European infrastructure projects and PPP schemes, has committed about 7.5% of the commercial term loan financing.
The PPP contract is based on train availability rather than simply supplying a fleet of trains, so Siemens will be responsible for the maintaining the fleet to ensure that sufficient trains are available each day, with penalties for failure to do so.
