Stibbe advises SOFICO
Stibbe advised SOFICO, the Walloon Region’s financing company, on one of Wallonia’s most innovative and ambitious PPP projects.
The project aims to implement Wallonia’s “plan Lumière 4.0” whose objective is to restore and manage the electromechanical equipment of Wallonia’s 2,300 km road network, and to implement the concept of intelligent routing on this network. More particularly, the project consists of installing innovative LED lights and renovating (around 100,000) existing installations in the next four years. This €600 million project was awarded under a DBFM-contract with a 20-year term.
Stibbe was privileged legal counsel and collaborated closely with French company Hexa Ingénierie (on the technical aspects) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (on the financial aspects).
SOFICO was assisted by Stibbe’s multidisciplinary Infrastructure Projects Team led by real estate and construction law partner Rony Vermeersch, and its team members were partners Bruno Lombaert (Public law), France Maussion (Environment and Planning), Wouter Ghijsels, and Peter Wytinck (EU and Competition Law).
Contract close took place on 13 February followed by the official unveiling ceremony on 13 March, in the presence of officials representing the Walloon Region, namely Willy Borsus, Minister President of Wallonia and the Walloon minister Carlo Di Antonio as well as the representatives of Sofico, Citelum and Luminus.
