Go-ahead for Polish highway project - billion-krona order awaits NCC

Go-ahead for Polish highway project - billion-krona order awaits NCC On Friday, AWSA, a Polish company in which NCC is a partner, signed a concession agreement with the Polish Ministry of Transport. Pursuant to the agreement, a 149-kilometer highway section will be constructed from Nowy Tomysl to Konin. This highway section will be one of three sections of the A2 Highway between the German border and Warsaw, for which AWSA received a concession in 1997. The value of the current order is SEK 5.4 billion, of which NCC's share is worth SEK 1.3 billion. "It is gratifying that we have now taken an additional step towards the start of construction," says Alf Algotsson, Vice President of NCC's Civil Engineering business area. "We have now reached agreement on every point and it is now up to the consortium to resolve the remaining financing matters, which we estimate will be completed by midyear 2000 at the latest. The A2 Highway project is gigantic and NCC is proud and pleased about participating in the largest infrastructural project in the former Eastern Bloc. "The A2 Highway will be constructed in the form of a BOT (build, operate and transfer) project. The consortium is responsible for financing matters, for constructing the highway and, subsequently, for operating it. Construction of the first phase of the project will extend from 2000 to 2006. This will be followed by a 106-kilometer section, which is also included in AWSA's concession. The A2 Highway is one of the EU's high-priority road projects, since it is regarded as strategically important to the continued development and eastward expansion of the European Union," Alf Algotsson continues. In addition to NCC, the construction consortium consists of Strabag of Austria, Teerbau of Germany and Impregilo of Italy, which are companies with whom NCC frequently cooperates in other projects. The highway operator in the consortium is EGIS (formerly Transroute), a French company that is responsible for operating 90 percent of the highways in France. Although the construction consortium owns a considerable share of the concession company, AWSA, the largest proportion is owned by Polish companies. The project is the result of several years of intensive work. NCC and the other consortium companies started to cooperate as early as 1995. In this perspective, Friday's agreement may be viewed as an important step towards a forthcoming commencement of construction activity. For further information, please contact Alf Algotsson, Vice President of NCC's Civil Engineering business area (Tel: +46-8-655 20 00, +46-70-510 09 29), or Jan Tojkander, President of NCC Polska Anläggning (Tel: +46-8-655 20 00, +48-601 61 62 27). ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/11/02/19991102BIT00350/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/11/02/19991102BIT00350/bit0002.pdf