Hunton & Williams Advises on Commercial Close for $1.8 Billion Cambodian Expressway Project

Hunton & Williams LLP is pleased to announce its role as lead transaction counsel to China Road and Bridge Corporation in a $1.8 billion public-private partnership (PPP) development of a 190-kilometer expressway in Cambodia.

CRBC, one of the world’s largest construction companies, signed the toll-risk concession agreement with the Cambodian government on Jan. 11, 2018, in the presence of the Chinese premier and Cambodian prime minister during the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation summit meetings between China, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.

A key project in China’s One Belt, One Road initiative, the expressway will link Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, to Sihanoukville, site of the nation’s only deep-sea port. Construction is anticipated to begin in the summer of 2019 and take four years to complete.

“It is truly rewarding to be involved in a project of such magnitude. Connecting the only deep-sea port in Cambodia with the capital, the expressway is expected to transform the nation’s economy,” said London-based energy and infrastructure partner Kirk Lovrić, who leads the Hunton team advising CRBC for the last 18 months.

Following commercial close, Hunton & Williams continues to advise CRBC in connection with matters related to financial close, the next phase of the project. In addition to Lovrić, the team also includes London-based senior attorney Jamie Head and associate Humphrey Kangha, and Bangkok-based associate Brad Alexander.

Hunton & Williams has experience across the entire range of contractual arrangements for PPP projects. The firm has represented project lenders, investors, developers, sponsors and governments throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the United States on PPP transactions and other project matters for more than 20 years. The firm also has worked extensively with governments and their parastatals, using financing and other programs provided by the World Bank and other governmental, multinational, multilateral and bilateral export credit, risk insurance and lending agencies.