The sponsors behind Bogotá’s Metro Line 1 are expected to sign the financing documents with lenders in March (2024) and first disbursement in June, IJGlobal has learnt.

The commercial project financing will be provided in the form of a revolving loan structured across 2 facilities.

The local currency tranche is worth Ps1.2 trillion ($310m) and the lenders are:

• BBVA – Ps400 billion
• Banco Bogotá – Ps400 billion
• FDN – Ps400 billion

The lending team providing peso financing has changed since last year (2023), with local banks Banco de Occidente and Banco Popular dropping out.

The decision was made by Grupo Aval – a Colombian conglomerate that owns Banco Bogotá, Banco de Occidente and Banco Popular – sources say.

Lenders to the USD denominated facility (with ticket sizes) are:

• Bank of China (BOC) – $150 million
• Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) – $150 million

The project has also secured substantial financing from multilateral lenders:

• Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) – $600 million credit facility
• World Bank – $600 million loan
• European Investment Bank (EIB) – $480 million loan

The contract for Line 1 is valued at around $4 billion.

The concessionaire responsible for the 20-year DBFOM and transfer of Line 1, APCA Transmimetro, is a consortium of 2 Chinese companies:

• China Harbour Engineering Company – 85%
• Xi’An Metro Company – 15%

Line 1 will be 23.9km with 16 stations connecting Portal de las Américas and Calle 72. Local development bank FDN is structuring a potential 2.8km extension that would take the line up to Calle 100 with 2 more intermediate extensions.

APCA Transmimetro secured a Ps678 billion ($148m) bridge loan with Bancolombia and BBVA to fund the pre-construction phase of the project in December 2021.

Advisers to the lenders include:

• Clifford Chance – international legal
• Birgard Urrutia – local legal

Advisers to sponsor include:

• Norton Rose Fulbright – international legal
• Cuatrecasas – local legal
• Infrata – technical