NCC receives highway construction order in Poland worth SEK 2.7 billion

NCC receives highway construction order in Poland worth SEK 2.7 billion All the details required for initiation of construction on the major A2 highway project in Poland, the largest highway project ever in Europe, have now been resolved. AWSA, a Polish company in which NCC is a 10 percent partner, signed late Monday evening, a contract with the Polish Minister of Transport. The customer is the Polish Ministry of Transport's special unit for highway construction. The current order relates to one of three sections of the A2 Highway between the German border and Warsaw, for which AWSA received a concession in 1997. The order pertains to a 149-kilometer section of highway from Nowy Tomysl to Konin, of which newly produced highway will account for 101 kilometers and the upgrade of a highway section between Wrzesina and Konin for 48 kilometers. The value of the first phase of the project, including financing, is slightly more than SEK 8 billion. The construction works are worth SEK 5.4 billion, of which NCC's share amounts to SEK 2.7 billion. "The A2 Highway is the largest project ever in the history of NCC. In NCC we are of course, very proud to have achieved a break-though on polish market with this gigantic project, which has all possibilities to show good profitability" says Alf Algotsson, Deputy President of NCC Civil Engineering, who represented NCC in the negotiations. "We are pleased that everything is now ready for the start of construction. The project is the result of several years of intensive work that started as early as 1995," he adds. "The A2 Highway is a BOT project. AWSA is responsible for financing and construction, as well as operation of the highway up to 2040. The first section will be built between 2000 and 2004. AWSA's concession includes another, 106-kilometer long, section. The intention is to commence work on this second section as soon as the first phase has been completed. The EU has assigned high priority to construction of the A2 Highway, which is considered of strategic importance to the continued development of European cooperation and its eastward expansion," Alf Algotsson explains. Financing of the project will be arranged by AWSA's shareholders, EIB (the European Investment Bank) and commercial banks. The Polish State has issued a guarantee for EIB's loans. Construction work, which will take the form of a turnkey undertaking, will be conducted by the A2 Bau Development GmbH consortium, which is owned equally by NCC and Strabag, an Austrian construction company. The highway operator will be EGIS (formerly Transroute), a French company that is responsible for the operation of 90 percent of the highways in France. The A2 Bau Development GmbH consortium has a substantial ownership interest in the concession company AWSA, which is, however, predominantly owned by Polish companies. The highway construction contract pertains to a nearly 150-kilometer section of four-lane highway. The contract also includes the construction of 63 bridges and renovation of an additional 30 bridges, as well as the construction of three toll stations, three highway stations and 16 service areas. It is estimated that paving work will require approximately one million tons of asphalt. For further information, please contact: Alf Algotsson, Deputy President of the Civil Engineering business area (Tel: +46-70-510 09 29, +46-8- 655 20 00) Jan Tojkander, President of NCC Poland Civil Engineering (Tel: +48 601 61 62 27, +46-8-655 20 00) All NCC:s pressreleases can be found on www.ncc.se ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/10/31/20001031BIT00350/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/10/31/20001031BIT00350/bit0002.pdf