STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 21, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- A consortium comprising NCC, Skanska Eastern Europe and YIT today concluded an agreement to jointly build, develop and operate the Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant (SWTP) in St. Petersburg, Russia. The project is worth a total of EUR 128 million (SEK 1.179 billion). NCC accounts for one third of the contract through a 33-percent holding in SWTP Construction Oy, a Finnish construction company owned equally by NCC, Skanska and YIT. NCC also owns a 14-percent interest in Nordvod, the Russian ownership company.
SWTP is the most urgently required water-treatment project in the Bay of Finland and the Baltic Sea. According to plans, the plant will have the capacity to treat water for approximately 700,000 inhabitants in the St. Petersburg area.
The project will be implemented in the form of a Public-Private- Partnership model, in which the city of St Petersburg and private companies will cooperate in terms of financing and ownership. Vodokanal, the water-treatment administration in St Petersburg, will own 40 percent of Nordvod, the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) will own 20 percent and NCC, Skanska and YIT will jointly own 40 percent. This will be the first Public-Private-Partnership project of its kind in Russia.
The SWTP project will also be the first project to be developed within the framework of the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP), an international environmental program initiated by the European Commission, the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea and international financing institutions. The project will be financed via contributions from Sweden (SIDA: Swedish International Development Authority), Denmark, Finland and the EU's Tacis program, plus loans from the Nordic Investment Band (NIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Finnfund and Swedfund.
Construction will commence as soon as the financial structure has been completed and will last for about 2.5 years. The SWTP consortium will be responsible for the entire project and will also be involved in the plant's operation for 12 years. However, the contract value of EUR 128 million does not include operation.
"This partnership model will, in a true Nordic spirit, efficiently counter one of the greatest and most critical environmental challenges in the Baltic region. It is gratifying to be able to participate in a project that will improve the environmental situation in the Baltic Sea area," says Per Nielsen, President of NCC International Projects.
All of NCC's press releases are available on www.ncc.se
NCC is one of the leading construction and property development companies in the Nordic region. NCC has annual sales of SEK 46 billion, with 25,000 employees.
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