Department of Transport

Government appoints financial agent for Channel Tunnel Rail Link project
_______________________________________________________________

date 26 June 1996
source Department of Transport
type Press release

note 196

J Henry Schroder and Co Ltd in conjunction with Deloitte & Touche has
been appointed as financial agent to safeguard the Governments
financial interest in the Channel Tunnel Rail Link following the
choice of London and Continental Railways (LCR) as promoters of the
project.

Their role will be to provide expert financial advice to the
Government on all aspects of the project including LCRs financial
proposals and progress.

It is usual for the Department to appoint financial, technical and
legal advisers for the Private Finance Initiative projects because of
the ongoing public interest in them. The Development Agreement
signed with LCR provides for advisers to have access to LCRs staff,
data and plans. LCR are obliged to provide advisers with regular
progress reports.

Notes to editors

London and Continental Railways were appointed on 29 February 1996 to
take the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project forward. The appointment
took effect on 31 May 1996 with LCR taking control of European
Passengers Services (the UK arm of Eurostar) and Union Railways on
that date. Press Notices 64/96 and 170/96 refer.

Competitions for all three advisers (financial, legal and technical)
were launched in December 1995 and, in the case of the financial and
technical advisers, announced in the Official Journal of the European
Communities (contracts for legal services are exempt from this
requirement). The Department recently announced the appointment of a
group drawn from Mott Macdonald, Parsons and Sir Alexander Gibb and
Partners as technical advisers, and McKenna and Co as legal advisers.
Press Notice 163/96 refers.

Railhub Archive ::: 1996-06-26 DoT-001