Chicago's bridge to $2bn The Chicago Skyway acquisition was arguably the largest transportation deal to close in the US in 2004. Conor Kelly, managing director of Depfa Bank's infrastructure finance unit in North America, gives an overview of the deal. On October 27 2004, the City of Chicago (the City) awarded a 99-year concession and Lease (the concession) to acquire, manage, operate and maintain the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge System (the Skyway) to a private consortium consisting of Cintra Con

The successes in recent years in developing privately owned and operated transportation projects internationally has led to renewed focus on the US market. By Edward R Neaher Jr, White & Case LLP.

After the spectacular success of last year's Chicago Skyway, various US state and city government officials are now looking at PPPs. But the government of Texas, with its ambitious Trans-Texas Corridor project now getting under way, is years ahead of the rest of the PPP pack. By Nicole Gelinas. More than two years ago, the governor and legislature of Texas signed a law that allows private-sector companies to enter into development agreements with the public-sector Texas Turnpike Authority for gr

US infrastructure privatisations and public-private partnerships have emerged as the most talked about sector in project finance. What follows is a look at the most active states, a few of the prospective projects and the contacts. By Alison Healey. California California has a long history with exploring and using PPPs, but older legislation had caused the pipeline of deals to stall following the close of the SR-125 toll road in 2003. However, earlier this month AB850, legislation to enable toll

Anthony Henday enjoys the distinction that the project named after him is the first Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) PPP to successfully close in Alberta. By Shariq Alvi and Ian Shore, vice-presidents, Pricewater-houseCoop-ers, Canada.

The equity and debt financing for the massive ConnectEast toll road set a number of precedents in the Australian toll road market. By Sharon Klyne.

A group of three banks have concluded the financing of the Akasaka Sigma Tower project in Japan, the first PFI project undertaken by the House of Represent-atives (HoR). By Minerva Lau.

The ongoing problems at Jarvis tested the strength of the private finance initiative (PFI) procurement model to the limit. The model survived and the PFI contracts remain intact. So what did happen? By Rod Morrison. To put the story in context, it is worth going back to 1997. History is an academic discipline but in the case of Jarvis, looking back is instructive to say the least. Jarvis closed the first ever UK schools PFI deal, the £14m Colfox school, with Dorset County Council in December 199

The UK health sector has been the major source of regular mega project deal-flow in the global private finance initiative (PFI) sector. However, while the deal-flow continues, the controversy surrounding the sector has died down. Business has been normalised. By Rod Morrison.

Last month saw the close on the first UK-style public-private partnership (PPP) hospital project in Italy, the Mestre scheme. By Daniel O'Sullivan. April saw the close by lead arrangers ABN AMRO, IntesaBCI, Banca Antonveneta and its affiliate Interbanca on a €133m project financing package to help fund the €230m Mestre hospital, the first healthcare PPP project in Italy under which the concessionaire takes on an element of performance risk, as is standard in the UK market. As previou

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been long-awaited in France, but with real deal-flow visible at last a contract structure more nuanced than the widely-copied UK standard means there is little scope for real project lending. By Daniel O'Sullivan. Connoisseurs of French public procurement history have long claimed that, contrary to a widespread perception that the country is somehow a laggard in engaging the private sector in public infrastructure à la model of the UK-type PFI/PPP, Fr

Dr Braedon Clark, a lawyer with Minter Ellison in Melbourne, discusses interest withholding tax exemptions from the perspective of an international lender.