The concession contract for the future South Europe Atlantic high-speed rail (SEA HSR) between Tours and Bordeaux was signed on 16 June by the concession company Lisea, represented by Xavier Huillard, chairman and CEO of Vinci, and French railway infrastructure manager Réseau Ferré de France (RFF), represented by its chairman and CEO, Hubert du Mesnil, following a competitive bidding process launched in 2007 by RFF.
Lisea’s shareholders are Vinci Concessions (leader) and Vinci SA (33.4%), CDC Infrastructure, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts (25.4%), SOJAS, a dedicated investment entity (22%), and investment funds managed and advised by AXA Private Equity (19.2%).
The new Tours-Bordeaux high-speed rail project
The HSR project is 302 km long, with 38 km of connecting line to the conventional rail network. It represents a total investment of €7.8 billion and is the biggest public-private partnership (PPP) contract ever signed in France’s rail sector as well as one of the world’s largest infrastructure projects launched over the last decade.
The HSR, which will take six years to design and build, will reduce the journey time between Paris and Bordeaux to 2 hours 5 minutes. (Source: RFF, Vinci)
