Hunton Andrews Kurth Advises on Commercial Close for €300 Million Motorway Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP is pleased to announce its role as lead transaction counsel to the government of the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the development of an approximately €300 million motorway project.

The 42-kilometer motorway between Banja Luka and Prijedor in northwest Bosnia and Herzegovina is a public-private partnership (PPP) between the Srpska government and Shandong Hi-Speed Group Co. Ltd., which will finance, construct, operate and maintain the motorway. The parties approved the project’s concession agreement on Dec. 13.

“The Banja Luka-Prijedor PPP motorway is one of, if not the first, PPP infrastructure projects to be granted to a Chinese company, to be financed by a Chinese international financial institution, in a form consistent with EU standards (with a full availability payment),” said London-based energy and infrastructure partner Kirk Lovric, who leads the Hunton Andrews Kurth team.

Hunton Andrews Kurth also is advising the Srpska government on matters related to the project’s upcoming financial close. In addition to Lovric, the team also includes senior attorney Jamie Head. The firm also worked closely with Deloitte and engineering consultancy CESTRA on the project.

Hunton Andrews Kurth has experience across the entire range of contractual arrangements for PPP projects. The firm has represented project lenders, investors, developers, sponsors and governments throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States on PPP transactions and other project matters for more than 20 years. The firm also has worked extensively with governments and their parastatals, using financing and other programs provided by the World Bank and other governmental, multinational, multilateral and bilateral export credit, risk insurance and lending agencies.