Financial documents for Phase 4 of the Moscow Region’s Central Ring Road (CRR) construction project were signed on 12 December 2019. The syndicate consisting of Gazprombank, Sberbank, the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) and VEB.RF formalised its arrangement with South-Eastern Highway LLC to lend a total of 35.8 billion roubles for 17 years.
South-Eastern Highway LLC is a special purpose entity created by the Avtoban Group and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to carry out the CRR-4 project. Apart from the Avtoban Group and RDIF, the project also involves financial sponsors—the EDB, VEB.RF and InfraVEB—providing 4.1 billion roubles in subordinate financing for 20 years.
Nikolay Tsekhomsky, First Deputy Chairman – Member of the Management Board, VEB.RF: “Support for major infrastructural projects is high on our list of priorities. In the arrangement, VEB.RF will join the syndicate of senior lenders and provide a portion of subordinated debt as a financial sponsor for the project. Our participation made it possible to finalise the financing structure required by the concession agreement, which is essential to the smooth implementation of the project.”
Konstantin Pesotsky, Senior Managing Director of Structured Lending Products, Sberbank: “We are very honoured to participate in financing the country’s biggest transport infrastructure projects. When put into operation, the Central Ring Road can be a driver of economic growth in Russia, because this highway will considerably speed up the movement of people and goods in the Moscow Region.”
Pavel Brusser, Executive Vice President and Head of Infrastructure & PPP Projects, Gazprombank: “The syndicate of Russia’s largest banks, along with international financial institutions and the Russian Direct Investment Fund, will participate in the project by providing the financing necessary to keep to a tight construction deadline. The syndicate has experience of implementing a similar project, namely Phase 3, which will allow the project risks of the concession to be managed effectively.”
Timur Abdullakhanov, Managing Director and Head of Transport and Infrastructure, EDB: “This is a transport infrastructure project, belonging to a sector that we view as a priority. The project will promote cross-border transport through the Western Europe-Western China transport corridor. For instance, the Phase 4 road is immediately adjacent to the Western Europe-Western China highway and is connected to the M-7 Volga highway and farther to the border with Kazakhstan. The project not only contributes to interregional economic integration between Moscow and neighbouring areas and, in a wider context, across Russia’s transport system in general, but also helps the EDB member countries to increase their transit potential in Eurasia in the long term.”
The concession agreement was signed by Russian Highways, on behalf of the government, and South-Eastern Highway LLC on 2 June 2017. The CRR-4 project includes the financing, construction and operation of a 96.5-kilometre road section. The Phase 4 road is to run in the south-east of the Moscow Region, 50 kilometres from the Moscow Ring Road, through the Noginsk, Pavlovsky Posad, Voskresensk and Ramenskoye Districts and the municipalities of Elektrostal and Domodedovo.
The route is from the M-7 Volga federal highway (km 0 of the A-113 Central Ring Road) to M-4 Don. The predicted average daily traffic for 2030 is 40,300 vehicles. The design speed is 140 km/h. The first construction stage includes four lanes (two in each direction).
Phase 4 consists of 17 bridges and wildlife crossings, 40 flyovers and nine elevated structures. The project uses six grade-separated junctions for the following roads: M-7 Volga, Moscow Smaller Ring Road, Yegoryevskoe Highway, Moscow Smaller Ring Road–Chechevilovo–Moscow Greater Ring Road, M-5 Ural, Vostryakovo–Obraztsovo (access to Domodedovo Airport), M-4 Don.
The Central Ring Road (CRR) is of vital importance for the Moscow Region. The CCR project consists of five phases, each of them can be fully functional as an independent investment project. Phase 3 and Phase 4 are built under the concession agreements signed by Russian Highways with Motor Road Construction Corporation LLC (CRR-3) and South-Eastern Highway LLC (CRR-4).
On 11 December, at the 25th UN Climate Change Conference (COP 25), the VEB Group held a session on a green approach to urban sustainability. The delegation was headed by VEB.RF’s Deputy Chairman Cesare Ragaglini.
The session was opened by Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Mikhail Rasstrigin, speaking about Russia’s main climate change initiatives.
Cesare Ragaglini told the audience about the new role of VEB.RF as a coordinator of development institutions and VEB.RF’s new priorities in urban development, noted the significance of VEB.RF’s involvement in Russian national projects and underlined that they were consistent with the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
According to Ragaglini, VEB.RF shares international concern about climate change. “Russia is a party to the Paris Agreement, ratified in September 2019. In the issue of climate change, countries are so interdependent that any green initiatives in one country will be of benefit to the entire global community,” he said.
VEB.RF’s representatives also emphasised the importance of adopting a practical approach to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030. In this connection, Cesare Ragaglini mentioned that a high proportion of projects approved by VEB.RF in 2016–2018 met the green project financing criteria of the International Development Finance Club (IDFC). Additionally, VEB.RF’s representatives described the programme to implement the Environmental Protection national project and presented VEB.RF’s participation in the project worth 155 billion roubles to build energy-from-waste plants in the Moscow Region.
The session also noted that the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 could not be attained without the adequate development of urban areas, which are home to most people in the world. In this context, DOM.RF presented the results of its efforts to develop and test-operate the Urban Environment Quality Index and the Integrated Territorial Development Standards based on international best practices.
The session took place at the pavilion of the International Development Finance Club. VEB.RF has been actively involved with IDFC since its inception in 2011. The IDFC members are 26 national and regional development banks from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. IDFC traditionally focuses its efforts on the global issues of climate change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
About COP 25
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in May 1992 and entered into force in March 1994. The parties to the UNFCCC are currently more than 180 countries, including Russia, taking joint action to mitigate climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. The signatory nations (Russia signed the UNFCCC in 1994) agreed to implement national climate change programmes, carry out studies and report on their findings.
The Paris Agreement is an agreement signed by 195 UNFCCC members in 2015 to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and curb the increase in global average temperature as part of efforts to reduce global warming.