Structuring of tailor-made financing for Bartholet ropeway project in Italy

At the beginning of October 2023 AIL structured a long-term tailor-made financing solution in favor of Bartholet Maschinenbau AG relating to the delivery and installation of an 8-seat cable car lift system for San Domenico Ski S.r.l. in Italy.

Bartholet Maschinenbau AG, headquartered in Flums, Switzerland, is a leading international company in the fields of ropeway systems, amusement parks, mechanical engineering and lighting systems. For more than 60 years Bartholet has been planning and building ropeways in mountain areas and increasingly also in urban areas.

San Domenico di Varzo is a ski resort in the Piedmont region of Italy close to the large cities of Milan and Torino. It offers year-round leisure activities such as skiing, hiking, and mountain biking. In order to accommodate the growing number of tourists wanting to use the available infrastructure of the resort, it was decided to increase the transport capacity from the village to the ski slopes which are located around Alpe Ciamporino at 1’936 m.a.s.l. Together with a new parking lot, these are the main innovations that are being implemented in the resort.The lift system connects the municipality of San Domenico di Varzo to Alpe Ciamporino and effectively complements the two existing chair lifts which currently are the only connection between the two locations. The lift system has a length of 1.4 km in total and features an elevation gain of 570 m. It has a maximum transport capacity of 2’400 passengers per hour.

The parties concluded the delivery contract at the end of 2022. In the spring of 2023 AIL was approached by the parties with a request to structure and elaborate possible long-term financing solutions for the project. Ultimately, a tailor-made financing solution that was satisfactory to all involved parties was selected and implemented. Throughout the entire process AIL assisted and advised the parties (incl. drafting and negotiation of the financing documentation as well as the necessary delivery contract amendment and supporting documentation, SERV application process), in order to accommodate the new financing structure.