Building bridges and roads in Turkey

Ballast Nedam International Projects (BNIP) builds large-scale and complex projects worldwide, often under challenging conditions. There is a strong focus on Northern and Western Europe, but the business unit is growing rapidly, particularly in West Africa and the Caribbean.

Rönesans has been successfully active for more than 30 years as a main contractor and investor in construction, real estate, concessions, sustainable energy, and industry in over 30 countries, with Turkey and Europe as its core regions.

The acquisition of Ballast Nedam in 2015 was one of the key steps for Rönesans Holding to enter the European markets and obtain references for infrastructure projects. The Netherlands and Turkey are currently important home markets for the group. The group’s expansion into Africa, the Middle East, East Asia, and Latin America is led by Ballast Nedam International Projects.

BNIP is currently working on the Nakkaş–Başakşehir highway project in Istanbul, Turkey. This is a 31 km highway including a 1.6 km cable-stayed bridge. The project is the eighth and final section of the major Northern Marmara Highway to be completed. It will relieve heavy traffic on the Trans-European Motorway (TEM) and the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, saving future users significant travel time.

The Nakkaş–Başakşehir Project is a project financing of EUR 1.044 billion for the development of the highway. The tender process was quite a challenge. However, the process created strong synergies between group companies and Ballast Nedam International Projects.

Rönesans: “The real challenges began right after winning the tender. The period required to finalize the financing took much longer than the tendering phase of this project. The environmental and social processes (which follow the highest standards of export credit agencies and international financial institutions) for a highway in the middle of Europe’s largest metropolis brought several challenges. Nevertheless, we managed to overcome them. We are very grateful to Atradius DSB for their dedication and patience from day one until the financial close.”

This project also involved two other ECAs, namely SERV from Switzerland and KUKE from Poland. All ECAs involved in the project created an efficient structure as part of a broader framework for realizing this construction project. The Nakkaş project was the first to be completed with support from the Swiss SERV and the Polish KUKE as reinsurer. As Rönesans, we aim to replicate this experience in other projects, just as Ballast Nedam International Projects has done with Atradius in overseas markets.

Ballast Nedam: “In all regions and project types described above, there will be further collaboration between Rönesans and Ballast Nedam International Projects. For example, Rönesans Enerji is considering deploying Ballast Nedam as the contractor for one of the upcoming wind energy projects in Turkey. They will explore possibilities for potential Atradius DSB guarantees for the financings, as this is one of the key value propositions they can offer.”

For the ECAs, it was important that there was a Debt Assumption Agreement, under which the Turkish Ministry of Transport guarantees the outstanding loan. This provided Atradius DSB and SERV, as leading ECAs, with security regarding their guarantees and credit risk.

Rönesans: “At Rönesans Holding, we focus on our home market of Turkey. In addition, we seek markets for major projects where we wish to cooperate with Ballast Nedam International Projects with potential support from Atradius DSB. Currently, CIS countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan are the primary focus for large construction and investment projects, such as hospitals.”