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A syndicate of banks composed of Banca IMI, UniCredit, Banca Popolare di Milano, UBI Banca and MPS Capital Services has been mandated on the structuring of project financing for Italy's Pedemontana Lombarda highway public private partnership (PPP) project.

The project financing amounts to €2.6 billion (US$2.86 billion) and will be used to construct the road. The same team along with Intesa Sanpaolo has provided a €200 million bridge loan for the refinancing of the existing bridge loan. Ashurst has advised the banks on both deals.

This announcement comes after Autostrada Pedemontana Lombarda, the consortium that is developing the road project, published in May 2015 a notice on the official Journal of the European Union seeking financiers to complete the project. The total project investment is estimated at €3.5 billion (US$3.86 billion).

Sahreholders of Autostrada Pedemontana Lombarda include Milano Serravalle - Milano Tangenziali (78.97%), Equiter (13.36%), Intesa Sanpaolo (4.01%), UBI Banca (3.34%), and Par. Cop. Soc. Cons. (0.32%).

The project involves the development of a 67 km motorway, 20 km of bypass roads (11km stretch in Como and a 9km stretch in Varese) and 70 km of road connections (one lane in each direction). It will connect five provinces, including Bergamo, Monza e Brianza, Milan, Como, and Varese.

The 67 km motorway has been divided into five sections: a 15 km road between A8 Milano-Varese and A9 Milano-Como, a 7.5 km road between A9 junction and SP ex SS 35 road, a  9.5 km road between Lentate sul Seveso and Cesano Maderno, a 16.5 km road between Cesano Maderno and the junction of Tangenziale Est / A51 highway and a 18.5 km road between Tangenziale Est/A51 and A4 highway at Osio Sotto, Bergamo.

The first 15 km stretch was completed in January 2015 by the construction consortium, which is comprised of Salini Impregilo (47%) Astaldi (24%), Impresa Pizzarotti (18%) and Itinera (11%).