Pinsent Masons advises on $1.8 billion recapitalisation and refinance of the Reliance Rail Group

Pinsent Masons advised Amber Australia Pty Ltd as an affiliate of Amber Fund Management Limited, the investment adviser to International Public Partnerships (INPP).  INPP is a UK based investment company, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.  As at 31 December 2016, INPP had an investment portfolio comprising of economic interests in 126 high quality infrastructure projects globally.

The Reliance Rail Group is the SPV incorporated for the purposes of operating the Australian rolling stock public-private partnership, the Reliance Rail PPP Project.  The Reliance Rail PPP Project is responsible for the finance, design, manufacture and ongoing maintenance of 78 next-generation, electrified "Waratah" train sets (comprising 626 train cars) serving Sydney and New South Wales, Australia.

Through its participation in the recapitalisation and refinance of the Reliance Rail Group, INPP increased its interest in the Reliance Rail Group to 33%.  The recapitalisation and refinance of the Reliance Rail Group also facilitated an important restructure of the group (supported by the group's shareholders, management of Reliance Rail and the New South Wales government).  It is anticipated that the recapitalisation and refinance, and associated restructure, will result in a de-leveraged, lower cost and more sustainable structure for the group, whilst also restoring the original value of the group's existing investment to provide an attractive return for INPP. 

The Pinsent Masons team acting on the transaction was led by Ewan Robertson, Partner, and Lucy Carter, Associate.

Commenting on the deal Ewan Robertson said:

"We have a close relationship with Amber and INPP, and our specialist focus on the infrastructure sector means we were ideally placed to work with them on what was an extremely complex transaction which not only increased their presence in the Australian infrastructure sector but also resulted in the Project being one of INPP's largest investments globally.As Pinsent Masons continues to grow in Australia, we are looking forward to continuing to work with Amber/INPP and others in what is a becoming a very dynamic infrastructure market with many international players."