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Weekly Lists
July 13, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 26
bne:
Infrastructure
Serbia signs €943mn deal with China for reconstruction of Belgrade-Budapest railway
Moldova borrows €270mn to connect its power grid with Romania’s
Serbia and China signed a €943mn commercial agreement on the modernisation and reconstruction of the Belgrade-Budapest high- speed rail link in the territory of Serbia on July 7 at the summit of China and 16 countries of Central and Eastern Europe in Sofia, the Serbian government’s statement reads. The agreement concerns the section Novi Sad-Subotica-state border (Kelebija).
The 350km rail link is expected to cut travel time between Budapest and Belgrade from the current eight hours to less than three. The project is part of Beijing’s aim to create a fast lane for importing and exporting products between China and Europe.
”Regional infrastructure projects are the most important for Serbia and they will contribute to linking and stimulating the economic progress of the region,” Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said.
The government of Moldova on July 11 ratified two financing contracts with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and European Investment Bank (EIB), worth €80mn each, for financing the €270mn project aimed at streamlining the country’s power grid, making it compatible and connecting it with Romania’s grid.
The World Bank will lend another €70mn and the European Union will extend a €40mn grant for the project.
Moldova can cover its entire power consumption, but its genera- tion capacities are located in the separatist territory of Transnistria, forcing Chisinau to indirectly finance the separatist regime in Ti- raspol by purchasing electricity. To avoid this, the country relies at timed on imports from Ukraine, which are not entirely reliable for technical reasons.
Turkish energy group Bereket Enerji hired Istanbul-based Yapi Kre- di Yatirim to sell its cascaded Goktas I and Goktas II hydroelectric power plants with a combined capacity of 275MW as part of plans to pay down some of its $4bn of debts, seven people with knowledge of the plan told Bloomberg on July 5.
Several local suitors are interested in the plants and Bereket is seeking to earn at least $400mn from the sales, according to Bloomberg.
Turkey’s corporates have been on a borrowing binge but now the credit environment is becoming less benign they will have to start deleveraging.
Turkey’s Bereket Enerji puts two hydropower plants up for sale to pay $4bn debt