Norton Rose Australia is pleased to announce that client, Brookfield Rail, has completed its US$882 million combined project and corporate financing, to be used to fund the expansion of its Mid-West below ground rail infrastructure network.
Norton Rose Australia documented the transaction as sponsor counsel for Brookfield Rail.
Brookfield Rail (100% owned by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, NYSE and TSX listed) will use the proceeds of the financing to fund the expansion programme for its track infrastructure throughout the Mid-West of WA. This region is of broader economic and strategic significance to Australian export and trade, being the location of many PRC-supported magnetite projects. Brookfield Rail’s expanded track is a critical piece of infrastructure to enable iron ore from those projects to be transported to port for subsequent export, predominantly to China.
Documentation and execution of the transaction has been more than 12 months in the making, and a great deal of what Norton Rose Australia has documented and negotiated is unique in the context of domestic infrastructure deals. The transaction was particularly noteworthy due to the following:
- the involvement of both Australian and Canadian export credit agencies, which is representative of the critical role Brookfield Rail plays in supporting the development of mining projects in WA that are vital to the growth of Australian commodity exports;
- the complexities involved in structuring and balancing the interface between the interests of the relevant export credit agencies, a PRC sovereign lender and Brookfield Rail’s own syndicate of banks;
- the cross-border nature of the deal, with the involvement of a PRC policy bank, Canadian and Australian ECAs and a syndicate of banks which includes both Australian and foreign banks, requiring the involvement of a global team from across the Norton Rose Group, in Australia, Beijing and Hong Kong and Calgary; and
- Brookfield Rail’s involvement as a major infrastructure provider in WA being part of the broader Brookfield Infrastructure group which has major infrastructure assets located all over the world.
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