The reason that I haven't been able to find out many details of the financing for Argentina's new high speed train is that there don't seem to be many details to be found. But here's what there is.
Natixis will collect a 4 percent fee on the issue of 30-year euro-denominated debt. €430m will be issued this year, with an additional €2,070m issued between 2009 and 2011. The bonds will pay a coupon equal to LIBOR plus a spread to be determined later plus a "liquidity charge" that Natixis will collect on any bonds that it decides to keep on its books as the underwriter. Natixis plans to underwrite the bonds at 88 percent of par.
So ... the one-year LIBOR right now is about 3%, which would mean that without the spread and the liquidity charge, Argentina would pay a rather low effective rate of 3.6% on the issue. In other words, we still don't have a clue how much this will cost Argentine taxpayers. Some unofficial sources in the Argentine government suggested to me that the effective interest rate will be 10.21%.
Of course, 30 years is a long time for an Argentine bond issue ... Argentina's record in paying back debts over that long a period is pretty poor. But Natixis may have other recourses.
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