This article is part of a daily series of MegaProjects articles. If you want to know more about PPP projects with a considerable size visit our MegaProjects section. You can receive them by email on a daily basis.

The Tangenziale Esterna Spa, the concessionaire responsible for designing, implementing and managing for 50 years the Milan Outer Eastern Bypass (Tangenziale Est Esterna di Milano - TEEM), has reached financial close for the project.

A total of €2.1 billion have been mobilized to structure the project, which has been signed during the month of December.

The project finally had the following financial structure:

• Subsidy: €330 million
• Concessionaire's capital increase: €580 million (the initial amount of capital was €220 million)
• European Investment Bank (EIB) financing: €475 million
• Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CdP) financing: €350 million
• Banks financing: Unicredit, Banca Intesa San Paolo, Banca IMI and Banco Santander.  €375 million

The financing contract with the pool of banks includes a refinancing option seven years after the contract.

The project consists of:

• the construction of a 32-km multi-lane bypass running from Melegnano on the A1 Milan-Bologna-Rome-Naples Motorway to Agrate Brianza on the A4 Turin-Milan-Venice-Trieste Motorway, with an additional link, the so-called "Arco TEEM", to the future Brescia-Bergamo-Milan Motorway ("BreBeMi");
• the construction of 38 kilometres of new non-motorway thorough fares;
• the upgrading of 15 kilometres of existing roads; and the completion of 30 kilometres of cycle paths.

The proposed new motorway will relieve traffic congestion along the eastern bypass corridor of Milan. It is therefore expected to result in substantial travel time savings, as well as in a reduction in trafic.

The project was awarded to a group of companies led by Impregilo and Pizzarotti. Tangenziale Esterna (TE) SpA, established on 14 January 2009, is the concessionaire managing the project. See complete list of shareholders here.