RFF:Hopes Vinci Consortium Will Find Funding Answer By End Oct
02 Octobre 2009 - 7:35PM
Dow Jones News
French railway infrastructure manager Reseau Ferre de France, or
RFF, hopes a Vinci SA (DG.FR) consortium will find a funding
solution by the end of this month for a public-private partnership
contract, an RFF spokeswoman told Dow Jones Newswires.
"We hope there will be a funding solution by the end of
October," the spokeswoman said. She noted the RFF is holding a
board meeting Oct. 14.
The EUR1-billion public private partnership contract is for a
GSM network along railway lines, and includes the financing, the
construction and the running of the GSM network for 15 years.
In February, the RFF said they had selected the offer from the
TDF consortium, consisting of French construction and concession
company Vinci SA's Vinci Energie and Vinci Concessions, Vivendi
SA's (VIVDY) telecom operator, SFR, and AXA SA's (AXA) AXA
Investment Managers Paris.
The RFF said in February it would turn to the second best
candidate if discussions with TDF did not succeed, but it didn't
say which candidate that would have been.
Other offers came from consortiums led by Vinci's French peer,
Eiffage SA (FGR.FR), Franco-U.S. telecommunications equipment
company Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) and French building-to-broadcasting
giant Bouygues SA (EN.FR).
RFF Web site: www.rff.fr
-By William Horobin, Dow Jones Newswires; +33 1 4017 1740;
william.horobin@dowjones.com