Supreme Panvel Indapur Tollways Private Limited

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In October 2010, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) awarded a 21 year concession (including construction period of 910 days) to a consortium of Supreme Infrastructure India Limited, China State Construction Engineering Corporation, and Mahavir Road & Infrastructure Private Limited for the strengthening,improvement, widening,operation and maintenance of 84kms (from KM 00.00 to KM 84.00) of Panvel to Indapur section of National Highway-17 (NH-17) in the state of Maharashtra. Under the contract, the SPV was responsible for the design, construction, finance, operation and maintenance and strengthening of the existing 2-lane highway to a 4-lane highway with paved shoulders. The scope includes strengthening & maintenance of existing carriageway including construction of new pavement, rehabilitation of existing pavement, construction and/or rehabilitation of major and minor bridges, culverts, service roads, road intersections,interchanges, drains,etc.The expansion project, part of National Highway Development Project Phase-III will ease traffic congestion on this busy corridor. The consortium of Supreme Infrastructure India Ltd (64%), China State Construction Engineering Corp, and Mahavir Road & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd established a special purpose vehicle, Supreme Panvel Indapur Tollways Private Limited, to implement the project. The SPV won the tender through competitive bidding, conducted by NHAI,by quoting the lowest grant from NHAI of US$7.2mn (INR 339.5mn @47 INR/USD).Under the contract, the SPV was to recover the capital costs and operating costs including returns through tolling during the term of concession.Supreme Infrastructure India Ltd and Mahavir Road and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd were the EPC contractors for the project. The concession agreement was signed on 21st January 2011. The project attained financial closure on 30th August 2011. The grant/debt/equity ratio of the project was 2.7/72.6/24.7. The estimated capital cost of the project at the time of financial closure was US$ 263.8mn (INR 12399.5 mn @ 47 INR/USD) million. Apart from the NHAI grant, financing comprised INR 9000mn 14year 9month term loan,and INR 3060mn sponsor equity. The INR 9000mn term loan had a grace period of 12years and a repayment schedule of 135 monthly instalments. The loan was priced at 300bp over the prevailing SBI prime lending rate.The debt was arranged by SBI Capital. The participating banks were Canara Bank (1400mn), IIFCL (1400mn),L&T Infrastructure Finance Ltd (750mn),Corporation Bank (950mn),State Bank of Patiala (1000mn), Union Bank of India (1400mn), and State Bank of India (2100mn). Construction on the project began in August 2011 and was expected to be completed by February 2014.