SIR ERIC PARKER
DEPUTY CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
21st November, 1991
TRAFALGAR HOUSE M
PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY
I BERKELEY STREET
TELEPHONE 071 499 9020 · CABLES
TELEX 921341
The Rt. Hon. Peter Lilley,
4
•
LONDON WIA |BY
TRAFULGENT
FACSIMILE 071 493 5484
My Store
Pa
ют
Secretary of State for Trade & Industry, Department of Trade & Industry,
1-19 Victoria Street,
London,
SW1H OET.
Dear Mr Lilley,
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HKB 182/3
030 Cly
Ricketts, HILD
Ps/ Lord Caithness Mr Burns
So Adv.
22
149
Hong Kong Airport
As you are aware Trafalgar House is leading a consortium now bidding for the Tsing Ma Bridge, the major suspension bridge which will link the site of Hong Kong's new airport to the urban area. Our partners are Costain and Mitsui & Co.
A great deal of effort has gone into this project over the last two years, and we are extremely grateful for the financial and political support your Department has given us. Our bid must be submitted by 16 December. It is our responsibility to ensure that it is priced realistically and competitively. We are confident that we can do this and, judged on these criteria, believe we will stand a good chance of securing the contract.
However it is our view and that of Schroders, our financial advisers, that offers of finance to fund the contract will have an important bearing on the client's decision, because of the exceptional circumstances surrounding the financing of this project as result of the ceiling on the level of post-1997 debt that the Hong Kong Government may incur following the signing of the Sino-British Memorandum of Understanding on the Airport.
We are therefore working with Schroders to put together a financial package that would offer the Hong Kong Government the flexibility it has indicated it wants to achieve in funding the Tsing Ma Bridge. An important component would be the provision of export credit for goods and services of UK origin. Several constructive meetings have taken place at working level with your Department and the Export Credit Guarantees Department.
continued/...
DIRECTORS. SIR NIGEL BROACKES (CHAIRMAN)
SIR ERIC PARKER (DEPUTY CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE)
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