20 November 2006
Sydney, 20 November 2006: Last week's announcement of the Reliance Rail consortium as the preferred bidder for the NSW Government's landmark A$3.6 billion RailCorp Rollingstock PPP project marked not only a significant milestone in the development of the state's rail infrastructure network, but the end of a long and successful haul for national law firm Clayton Utz.
The announcement of the consortium as preferred bidder to finance, manufacture and maintain an estimated A$2 billion worth of rail carriages followed an exhaustive tender process that began in May 2004 and represented the culmination of over two and a half years of intensive effort by a dedicated multi-practice team from Clayton Utz as advisers to RailCorp.
The RailCorp Rollingstock PPP is the biggest privately financed PPP project being undertaken in Australia and the biggest rollingstock acquisition in the country's history. The project involves the finance, design, manufacture and maintenance of 78 new 8-car trains (with Reliance Rail required to make at least 72 trains available for service every day). It also involves the financing, design, construction and maintenance of a new train maintenance facility at Auburn where the carriages will be maintained, and the design and construction of simulators to simplify the task of training more than 2,000 drivers and guards.
The new trains will replace about one-third of RailCorp's current fleet as well as providing additional trains for future growth on the Sydney metropolitan network.
Construction & Major Projects partners Doug Jones AM, Sergio Capelli and Owen Hayford led the Clayton Utz team that advised RailCorp, with the core legal team including senior associates Aggie Goss and Steven Power, consultant Jonathan Stafford and solicitors Lina Fischer and Robyn Metledge.
Clayton Utz advised RailCorp on all aspects of the tender process, including the call for expressions of interest and the shortlisting of bidders; the structure of and documentation for two requests for detailed proposals (one for single deck trains and another for double deck trains); the debt and equity documentation; the planning approval for the new maintenance facility at Auburn and other property issues related to the site of the new maintenance facility; local preference requirements, and; tender evaluation.
In addition to the core team and in a truly national effort, the Clayton Utz Major Projects team drew on a wide range of expertise from across the firm, including engaging the Legal Technology Support group to design and administer a Project Web used by RailCorp and bidders throughout the process.
The Clayton Utz team will now lead RailCorp through the process of contractual and financial close, both due to take place before the end of this year.
The head of Clayton Utz's Construction & Major Projects practice, Doug Jones AM, said the firm was proud to have assisted RailCorp on a project of such unique significance and complexity. "Our experience in acting on some of Australia's and Asia's largest and most significant infrastructure projects certainly assisted in helping us to successfully conclude the tender process for RailCorp. We look forward to continuing to work with RailCorp and seeing the project through to completion."
The Reliance Rail consortium comprises engineering firm Downer EDI, AMP Capital, ABN AMRO and Babcock & Brown. Under the project terms, the first of the manufactured carriages is expected to be rolled out onto the NSW rail network for testing by mid 2009.
