Loan to Helsinki-Turku motorway 

NIB has signed a loan of EUR 77 million to the special purpose company Tieyhtiö Ykköstie Oy for the construction of the last part of the E 18 motorway between Helsinki and Turku in southwestern Finland.

The road construction project is the largest of its kind in Finland. The project concerns a section of 51 kilometres, with seven tunnels, 76 bridges and eight interchanges.

The E 18 is part of the Trans-European Transport Network called the Nordic Triangle which links the Nordic capitals Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki to the Russian border. The motorway is the busiest east-west corridor in Finland, carrying about 60 percent of all international traffic.

The E 18 motorway will be constructed using a life-cycle model, which is a Public Private Partnership. The Finnish Road Administration is purchasing engineering, construction, financing as well as maintenance of the road from Ykköstie. When the road is ready and in operation, the Road Administration will pay a service charge to Ykköstie. The charge is based on the accessibility of the road–if the road is not in use, the charge decreases. After the contract period, which ends in 2029, the road will be transferred to the Road Administration. Until this, Ykköstie is responsible for the transport reliability and road quality. The road will be constructed by Skanska Tekra Oy and Lemcon Oy, who will also take care of the maintenance of the road. The service contract between Ykköstie and the Road Administration is worth a total of EUR 638 million, of which EUR 299 million is for the construction of the road.

Apart from NIB, the European Investment Bank, Nordea Finland Oyj, Svenska Handelsbanken AB and the Royal Bank of Scotland are participating in the financing of Ykköstie Oy. Ykksötie is owned by Skanska Infrastructure Development AB of Sweden, Laing Roads Ltd of Great Britain and Lemminkäinen Oyj of Finland.