SNC SNC Lavalin Group Inc

MONTREAL, Feb. 1, 2011 /CNW/ -- MONTREAL, Feb. 1, 2011 /CNW Telbec/ - Thomson Reuters awarded its 2010 PFI Award for PPP Deal of the Year (Americas) to the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), Groupe immobilier santé McGill and Infrastructure Québec for the financing of the new MUHC Glen Campus project. The prize was awarded at the PFI Awards Dinner held on January 26 in London, UK. The PFI Awards are the ultimate recognition of achievement in global project financing. The combination bank/bond financing for the new McGill University Health Centre in Montréal expanded the universe of PPP investors to fund the largest greenfield hospital project in Canada despite the challenge of a lengthy 51-month construction period. The financial advisors for Groupe immobilier santé McGill, SNC-Lavalin Capital and Investec North America Limited, chose Scotiabank, Dexia, BNP Paribas, CIBC, Crédit Agricole, RBS, and SMBC to handle the bank portion and Scotia Capital, Casgrain and Dexia to underwrite the bond issue. The financing program received great investor demand for the bond portion. The amortising bonds, which mature in 2044, were priced to yield 290 GBX over the benchmark. The bank loan portion of the financing was priced at 225 GBX over Libor. The bond issue raised 764 million from more than 50 investors. A consortium led by SNC-Lavalin with its partner Innisfree will develop the 300,000m(2), 500-bed facility under a DBFM contract comprising a 30-year operating period. "Rare are the opportunities to create a physical environment that will encourage the transformation of health care for generations, but the McGill University Health Centre's Glen Campus is one of them," noted the Hon. Arthur T. Porter, MUHC Director General and CEO. "It takes vision to invest in it, to innovate with its potential in mind and to bring personal ideas to bear not only on what that environment could look like but also how people could make it thrive. The Thomson Reuters award for our PPP transaction is yet another testament that this vision and my objectives for our organization are coming to life." "The award is in recognition of the innovative financing put in place by Groupe immobilier santé McGill, composed of SNC-Lavalin and Innisfree, as part of the overall project mandate. The novel aspect of this financing is the massive contribution from the bond portion in combination with the bank portion," added Gilles Laramée, Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. "The award also confirms SNC-Lavalin's and its partners' ability to structure financing that is adapted to market conditions."  "The Glen Campus PPP construction venture is one of the largest hospital infrastructure projects in the world. This award confirms that meticulous management and planning leads to excellence. Completing this project gives the Montréal area just the kind of economic boost it needs and will help provide our citizens with world-class health care at the cutting edge of technology. We look forward to the opening of the McGill University Health Care Glen Campus with excitement and pride," adds Michelle Courchesne, Minister responsible for Government Administration, Chair of the Conseil du trésor and Minister responsible for Infrastructure Québec.  About the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) One of the world's foremost academic health centres, the MUHC offers exceptional and integrated patient-centric care, research teaching and technology assessment. Highly committed to the continuum of care in its community and affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University, The Montreal Children's Hospital, the Montreal General Hospital, the Royal Victoria Hospital, the Montreal Neurological Hospital, the Montreal Chest Institute and the Lachine Hospital of the MUHC value multidisciplinary service throughout the lifespan, innovative technologies and practices, strategic partnerships and leadership in knowledge transfer. The MUHC is currently carrying out a $2.25-billion Redevelopment Project on three campuses—the Mountain, the Glen and Lachine—designed to provide healthcare professionals with an effective environment in which to ensure patients and their families benefit from The Best Care for Life. The campuses are also anchored in best sustainable-development practices, including LEED(®) and BOMA BESt guidelines. www.muhc.ca www.muhc.ca/construction SNC-Lavalin (TSX:SNC) is one of the leading engineering and construction groups in the world and a major player in the ownership of infrastructure, and in the provision of operations and maintenance services. SNC-Lavalin has offices across Canada and in over 35 other countries around the world, and is currently working in some 100 countries. In business since 1911, the Company celebrates its 100(th) anniversary in 2011.  www.snclavalin.com. Infrastructure Québec is overseen by Michelle Courchesne, Chair of the Conseil du trésor. Its mission is to assist in the planning, completion and follow-up of major government infrastructure projects, regardless of how they are carried out, by providing advice and expertise to ensure the proper management of public funds. www.infra.gouv.qc.ca. To view this news release in HTML formatting, please use the following URL: http://www.cnw.ca/en/releases/archive/February2011/01/c6805.html table class="cnwBorderedTable" border="1" cellspacing="0"tr valign="top"td colspan="2" align="left"Media  /td/tr tr valign="top"td align="left"Leslie Quintonbr/ Vice-President, Corporate Global Communications  br/ SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.br/ 514-393-1000, ext. 7354br/ a href="mailto:Leslie.quinton@snclavalin.com"Leslie.quinton@snclavalin.com/a/td td valign="top" align="left"Isabelle Mercillebr/ Press Officer for the Minister responsible forbr/ Government Administration and Chair of the Conseilbr/ du trésor br/ 418-643-5926br/ br//td/tr tr valign="top"td align="left"Julie Paquetbr/ Communications Lead, New MUHCbr/ McGill University Health Centrebr/ 514-934-1934, ext. 71684br/ a href="mailto:Julie.paquet@muhc.mcgill.ca"Julie.paquet@muhc.mcgill.ca/abr/ br//td td valign="top" align="left" /td/tr/table

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