Costa Rica Airport Revamp Bags Financing

The consortium that has taken over the renovation project for Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria airport in San Jose expects to get $100m in financing in November from the IDB and OPIC, says Paulo Monteiro, finance manager at Brazil construction company Andrade Gutierrez Concessoes (AGC). The consortium in charge of renovations is made up of AGC, Canada’s Airport Development Corporation (ADC) and Houston Airport Services (HAS), which runs 3 airports in Texas. Monteiro tells LatinFinance that of the $100m, the IDB will provide $45m and OPIC $55m. He expects the loans to have a 15-year term with a 2-year grace period. To take over the renovation, the consortium had to pay down the IFC loan, hedge contracts, and fines imposed on the leaders of the consortium previously in charge of this project, Bechtel and Chiangi. To do so, it had to get a $43m loan, Monteiro explains. Of that $43m, AGC was able to get half from Portugal’s Banco Espirito Santo, while ADC and HAS got the rest from Canada’s TD Bank. The new $100m loan will go to pay down the loans and to cover capex to finish the renovation. Monteiro says he hopes the consortium will be able to work on the next phase of the revamp, expected to start in 2014 or 2015 at a cost of about $140m.