Trung Luong-My Thuan Expressway a step closer to resume construction

The loans from banks may break the stagnation at the project

On June 17, Trung Luong-My Thuan BOT Company—the investor of the project—signed credit agreements for loans worth VND6.85 trillion ($300.2 million) with Vietinbank, BIDV, VPBank, and Agribank.

Accordingly, the investor collected 70 per cent of the investment capital for the project, while the remaining 30 per cent will come from the equity of investors in Trung Luong-My Thuan BOT joint venture company.

“Success in arranging the capital, which has been the largest problem causing the long delay in construction, will allow investors to accelerate works so that the project can come into operation in 2020,” Duong Quang Chau, chairman of Board of Directors of Trung Luong-My Thuan BOT company said.

Trung Luong-My Thuan BOT Company is the joint venture of Tuan Loc Investment Construction JSC, Yen Khanh Production and Trade Services Company Limited, BMT Construction Investment JSC, Thang Loi Group Limited, and Hoang An JSC.

The Trung Luong-My Thuan Expressway project involves building a 51 kilometre expressway and 4.5km approach road with the total investment capital of VND9.66 trillion ($423.4 million) under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) form.

Construction was initially kicked off by Expressway Investment Development Joint Stock Company under BIDV in November 2009 and was expected to be completed in late 2018. However, the construction was suspended as the investor was facing capital constraints.

It was resumed in February 2015. However, after 14 months, the construction remained stagnant. As a result, in April 2016, the transport authorities warned to revoke the investment certificate of the project due to the long delays in construction as well as submitting the investor consortium’s audited financial reports.

Since then, the investor has been looking at options to mobilise capital.