Press release
BAM – PGGM – VolkerWessels – DIF
Rijkswaterstaat and OpenIJ consortium reach financial close on the new sea lock at IJmuiden
IJmuiden, the Netherlands, 20 October 2015 – Rijkswaterstaat and the OpenIJ consortium have
reached financial close for the contract to design, construct, finance and maintain a new sea lock at
IJmuiden. The OpenIJ consortium consists of BAM-PGGM, VolkerWessels and DIF. The contract
value is approximately €500 million.
The new IJmond sea entrance is part of Rijkswaterstaat’s Locks Programme. Rijkswaterstaat, the
Province of North Holland, the City of Amsterdam, Port of Amsterdam and the Municipality of Velsen
worked together in the realization of this new large sea lock at IJmuiden which is co-funded by the
TEN-T programme of the European Union.
After almost 100 years in operation the Northern lock in IJmuiden will be replaced with a new, larger
lock system to improve the accessibility of the port of Amsterdam. This will stimulate the local
economy by offering space to the growing number of ships, independent of the tidal levels. The new
lock will be 70 meters wide, 500 meters long and 18 meters deep.
Construction activities will be carried out by a BAM Infra and VolkerWessels joint venture. The work
will commence early 2016 with the new lock available for shipping at the end of 2019. The dredging
activities will be carried out by subcontractors Van Oord and Boskalis. The new lock will then be
maintained by OpenIJ for 26 years.
The financing structure included bank loan facilities, an EIB (European Investment Bank) facility and
equity financing. The financing parties involved were DZ Bank, KfW IPEX-Bank, SMBC, BTMU,
Unicredit Bank and the EIB. The equity investors were BAM PPP PGGM Infrastructure Coöperatie
U.A., VolkerWessels and DIF Infrastructure III, with Rabobank providing an equity bridge facility.
Consultants to the consortium included RBC and Houthoff Buruma. Consultants to the banks included
JLT and Mazars. Herbert Smit Freehills with Linklaters provided legal advice to the banks. Mott
MacDonald provided technical advice to the banks. Rijkswaterstaat was advised by PwC and Pels
Rijcken & Drooglever Fortuijn.
BAM PPP
BAM PPP is responsible for Royal BAM Group’s involvement in the PPP market. Operating from offices in the
Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Ireland and Germany, BAM PPP is active in the road, rail, education, healthcare,
judicial and general accommodation sectors. BAM PPP has reached financial close on 38 projects, with a total
capital value of over €5.7 billion.
PGGM
PGGM is a cooperative Dutch pension fund service provider. Institutional clients are offered: asset management,
pension fund management, policy advice and management support. On June 30, 2015 PGGM had €186,6 billion
in assets under management. The PGGM cooperative has approximately 700,000 members and is helping them
to realize a valuable future. Either alone or together with strategic partners, PGGM develops innovative future
solutions by linking together pension, care, housing and work. www.pggm.nl
VolkerWessels
VolkerWessels is a Dutch construction group with 120 operating companies. We have branches in the
Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Canada/United States in three divisions: Construction & Real Estate,
Infrastructure and Energy & Telecoms. VolkerWessels and its 15,000 employees have the right solution when it
comes to living, work, mobility and energy & telecom. We develop, design, build, finance, manage, operate and
maintain. We develop, design, build, finance, manage and operate. We do this for our stakeholders: customers,
employees, shareholders, suppliers and society in general. VolkerWessels is a company that exploits
opportunities and introduces sustainable innovations. www.volkerwessels.com.
DIF
DIF is an independent Dutch investor in infrastructure projects which manages €3.1 billion of funds. Through
targeted investment funds DIF offers its investors access to highly qualified infrastructure projects that generate
long term stable cash flows, such as public private partnership (PPP) and renewable energy projects. DIF is
active in Europe, North America and Australia, and has offices in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Madrid,
Toronto, Sydney and Luxembourg. www.dif.eu
Further information:
- Arno Pronk, Koninklijke BAM Groep, +31 (0)30 659 86 23, ac.pronk@bamgroep.nl;
- Maurice Wilbrink, PGGM, +31 (0)30 277 97 35, maurice.wilbrink@pggm.nl;
- Gjalt Rameijer, VolkerWessels, +31 (0)88 186 61 76, grameijer@volkerwessels,com;
- Allard Ruijs, DIF, +31 (0)20 655 4705, a.ruijs@dif.eu
AP/pr/15/0078e