At the time of writing this case study, the successes of projects like Brussels Airport Rail Link PPP and Brabo 1 Light Rail PPP have developed into a well-established procurement method for numerous infrastructure projects, which subsequently followed. The project reached financial close during the Global Financial Crisis, in the third quarter of 2009. At that time, there was no policy commitment to PPPs within the central government. The rationale for using the PPP model for infrastructure projects was developed by individual Procuring Authorities on a project-by-project basis.
The economic environment at the time of financial close made it very difficult for the project sponsors to arrange a long-term debt facility. As such, the project was financially closed and subsequently constructed under a 10-year loan tenor. As a consequence, the project had to be refinanced within the contract period. The Flemish Government also assisted the Project Company in mitigating against this refinancing risk by guaranteeing access to finance after five to ten years, in the event commercial refinancing was not possible at appropriate pricing.