This short article tells us that the ACP is out looking for the funding from many sources including the regional stock market for the canal expansion. Last month the bidding on the largest contract of building the locks was postponed until December because of various reasons including a guaranty wanted by the contractors for increases in material costs. One wonders how they can seek funding when the bids arn't in, but why worry about those details. They state “We want to have those funds in place prior to the awarding of the bid for the design and construction of the third set of locks,”. Now of course you can bet any lender will be asking those questions as well. It will be interesting to see how many lenders step up to the plate in these troubling economic times when lending is at an all time low.
The Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (ACP) is planning to have $2.3 billion in external financing in place by December to pay for the expansion of the Panama Canal.
“We want to have those funds in place prior to the awarding of the bid for the design and construction of the third set of locks,” said José Barrios Ng, deputy administrator of the ACP.
Ng spoke yesterday to the Bolsas de Valores Centroamericanas (Bolcen), which was meeting in Panama City.
The ACP plans to seek funds from a variety of lenders, and wants to work with regional stock markets to finance the project.
The ACP is also seeking funds from the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Investment Bank and the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation. After finishing those negotiations, the ACP plans to open negotiations with private banks, which will provide a much smaller amount of financing for the project.
The expansion of the canal is expected to cost more than $5 billion and be completed by 2014.
