Seabras-1

The Project involved the construction of a 10,800 km fiber-optic cable which provides the first direct route between São Paulo and New York. Seabras-1 consists of 6 fiber pairs, with a design capacity of 72 Tbps or 12 Tbps per fiber pair. Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN) was selected as the turn-key supplier. Portland acted as Financial Advisor to the Sponsor, Seaborn Networks.

Portland were responsible for:

• Review of all available company information and contractual structure
• Preparation of funders’ Financial Model
• Analysis of financing options, recommendation of preferred structure
• Engagement and management of advisors (legal, technical / commercial, insurance)
• Preparation of full information package for financial institutions
• Preparation of detailed term sheets
• Management of bank funding competition and bank approval process
• Preparation of detailed sensitivity analysis
• Assistance with negotiation of documentation & Conditions Precedent to Financial Close.

“Seabras-1 was the first export credit agency-backed project financing of a subsea cable project in the 160-year history of the global telecommunications industry.”

Total project cost of US$ 410m with a debt to equity ratio of 60:40. Financing included a base case US$245m COFACE facility, as well as a US$22m Sales Support facility (available in the event sales targets were not met) and an US$85m refinancing facility. Debt tenor for the project was 5 years with a 33% inverse-order cash sweep.