Previous news
Caisse des Dépôts finances the railroad bypassing Nimes-Montpelier
Transport infrastructure - 10 July 2012
On 28 June, Caisse des Dépôts granted a €521mn loan on savings funds to the Oc' Via company for the financing of the partnership agreement concerning the railroad bypassing Nimes-Montpelier ordered by Réseau Ferré de France (RFF).
This is the savings fund’s fourth involvement in a major French railway project as part of a public-private partnership, with these four operations directly representing more than €1.6 bn of loans for the project company selected by RFF.
With the GSM-R railway telecommunications project (€128mn) in 2010, the LGV South Europe Atlantic project (€757mn) in 2011, and the LGV Brittany Pays de Loire project (€254mn) in 2011, the savings fund has worked with RFF as part of all of its major projects in recent years.
The savings fund’s involvement in French railway projects also makes it possible to work with many regional authorities as they seek to obtain the best possible financing of their contribution to the subsidies needed for these unifying territorial development projects. Since 2009, the loans granted for these participations in the LGV have amounted to more than €1.5bn.
Including the local authoriities and the project companies, more than €3bn of loans in all have been arranged by the savings fund over the 2009-2012 period in support of major railway projects.
Through centralisation of part of the regulated savings, the savings fund helps to provide financing for long-term general interest projects.
Devoted primarily to social housing and urban policy, this financing also provides for other priorities identified by the public authorities, such as transportation infrastructures, that have been the subject of dedicated budgets since 2004.
As such, since 2009, a new budhet of €7 bn of loans based on savings funds has been set up by the public authorities with regard to transportation projects, of which approximately €6.5bn have already been devoted to the financing of railway projects, as well as in port facilities and urban transportation.
