RBC Touts Toll Role

The $603 million public-private partnership between the Northwest Parkway Public Highway Authority and the private joint venture Brisa/CCR of Portugal closed last week, with RBC Capital Markets serving as financial adviser and sole P3 adviser, the firm said. The project’s entire bonded debt of $503 million was retired only four years after the toll road opened with no loss to bondholders, RBC noted. Another $100 million was placed in escrow. The deal is the first in the United States for a toll road agency that has no taxing authority or other governmental support.“This landmark transaction retires the toll road’s full bonded debt, provides funding for a possible future expansion of the road, and turns operations over to a globally respected team,” said John Hastings, head of RBC Capital Markets’ U.S. infrastructure and project finance group.Northwest Parkway is a nine-mile toll road through the northern suburbs of Denver and is an extension of an unfinished belt route around the Denver metro area. Since the toll road opened in November 2003, traffic and revenue have been below projections. Following an unsuccessful effort to restructure its tax-exempt debt in 2005, the authority elected to consider a privatization alternative as a way to retire its debt.The deal gives Brisa a 99-year concession.