The consortium’s principal commercial adviser, investor and financial arranger Plenary has worked alongside fellow project lead MTR to complete arrangements for an extension to their existing PPP contract. The original contract was awarded by the New South Wales government to MTR, Plenary, John Holland, Leighton Contractors, UGL Rail Services in 2014.
The consortium’s AU$3.7bn (£1.95bn) contract package includes AU$1.7bn for new metro trains and core rail systems as well as a component worth AU$2bn for operations and maintenance of the combined North West and City and Southwest lines until 2034.
The PPP will integrate the Sydney Metro City and Southwest project with the newly-opened Metro North West line to deliver dedicated 66km line with 31 stations from Tallawong to Bankstown.
Plenary CEO Paul Oppenheim said the Plenary and MTR teams had been working for more than three years in an exacting multi-stage process to deliver certainty and value-for-money to the state of New South Wales. “It was a process that demanded early agreement on the technical and commercial structures, establishing a fixed price and detailed terms for the extension,” he said. “The discipline required to achieve a fixed contract price is an outcome all parties can be very proud of in the current climate of price escalation. This is also a great advertisement for the flexibility of PPPs.”
The expanded project includes the integration of the existing Metro North West, the metro rail conversion of the Sydenham to Bankstown suburban line and more than 15 government-contracted packages – all coming together in a single metro system to be operated by NRT.
MTR will design, integrate and deliver the package with the support of Alstom (trains and signalling), Thales (communications), UGL (radio) and Gilgen (platform screen doors).
Plenary will refinance the Metro North West PPP and raise new debt and equity to finance Sydney Metro City and Southwest. Both Plenary and MTR will increase their equity positions in the project.
Plenary and MTR are now working with the NSW Government’s Sydney Metro authority to finalise contract details and achieve financial close, which is expected in the coming weeks.
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