Bechtel ENKA UK Limited, a joint venture between Bechtel and ENKA, has entered into its first exporter agreement with UKEF to secure a €430 million (£363 million approx) guaranteed loan for the construction of a 5G-ready motorway in Serbia.

The UKEF-supported Buyer Credit Facility will help Bechtel and ENKA to create value worth €150 million (£126.5 million approx) to the UK economy, driving investment into local communities and supporting jobs. This is also the first export credit deal to be concluded by UKEF for Serbia’s Ministry of Finance.

The Morava Corridor (Infrastructure Corridor E-761) will be the second major transport artery in Serbia, connecting communities and businesses from Pojate in the east to Preljina in the west, and linking the country’s North-South motorway to the Hungarian and North Macedonian borders.

The announcement was made during this week’s UK Government’s Global Investment Summit, hosted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London.

Brendan Bechtel, Bechtel CEO and Chairman, said:

This welcome support from UK Export Finance will allow Bechtel, together with our partner ENKA, to deliver this transformational infrastructure project using goods and services exported from the UK.

At a time of post-COVID recovery, this investment in the supply chain will benefit both the UK and Serbian economies and will also enable Bechtel to continue to grow our partnerships in both countries.

Mehmet Tara, President and Chairman of the Executive Committee, ENKA Insaat, said:

I am very pleased to see one more UKEF supported project with ENKA that has reached its financial closure.

This project is not only important for Serbia, but also is important for the UK since with the support of UKEF, our joint venture company with Bechtel, will create value for the UK economy and implement the project in Serbia.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, UK International Trade Secretary, said:

This partnership between Bechtel ENKA UK Limited and UKEF will boost UK exports, drive investment, support jobs and bolster local economies, helping us build back better from the pandemic.

This week’s Global Investment Summit is attracting the world’s top investors to the UK, showing why the UK is the best destination for foreign investment. There is no better time to invest in the UK.

Bechtel Enterprises, the project development and financing arm of Bechtel, supported the Republic of Serbia throughout the financing process together with JP Morgan Chase Bank as mandated lead arranger of the facility.

Keith Hennessey, President, Bechtel Enterprises, said:

This transaction is exemplary of the creative outcomes that can be achieved for our customers when export credit agencies, development finance institutions, international banks, and the supply chain work together.

We are proud to partner with the Government of Serbia and UKEF in this transformational project and we look forward to bringing energy and creativity to deliver this world-class motorway in this strategically important part of Europe. We thank the Government of Serbia for their active engagement throughout the financing process.

A major flood defence system is included in the motorway design to protect surrounding areas from flooding, erosion and subsequent water pollution.

This is the first flood mitigation system of this scale to be built alongside a motorway in the Balkans, reflecting the Serbian government’s commitment to strengthening the national infrastructure’s resilience against extreme weather conditions.

Ilhan Gucuyener, Member of the Executive Committee, ENKA Insaat, said:

I am very grateful with this exciting opportunity and UKEF support to Bechtel ENKA UK Limited for this Morava Corridor Project in Serbia.

With this second engagement of Enka with UKEF, we will continue to add value to UK economy. Export finance is one of the most beneficial tools we offer to our customers.

I would like to thank all the people who were involved at UKEF and Department for International Trade with their professional and business-oriented approach.

About Bechtel

Bechtel is a trusted engineering, construction and project management partner to industry and government. Differentiated by the quality of our people and our relentless drive to deliver the most successful outcomes, we align our capabilities to our customers’ objectives to create a lasting positive impact.

Since 1898, we have helped customers complete more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries on all seven continents that have created jobs, grown economies, improved the resiliency of the world’s infrastructure, increased access to energy, resources, and vital services, and made the world a safer, cleaner place.

Bechtel serves the Energy; Infrastructure; Nuclear, Security & Environmental; and Mining & Metals markets. Our services span from initial planning and investment, through start-up and operations. www.bechtel.com

About ENKA

ENKA has been listed among the ENR top international contractors since 1981 and with solid background of 64 years ENKA is operating in 4 main segments; Engineering & Construction, Power Generation, Real Estate and Trade. ENKA employs 20,000 employees worldwide and generates about USD 450 million annual EBITDA. With a USD 4.6 billion net cash it has financially sound position.

ENKA is a publicly traded company listed on Borsa Istanbul and by concentrating on sustainability it has been listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and Borsa Istanbul Sustainability Index. ENKA is also a constituent of FTSE4Good Index series and is a signatory to the UN Global Compact.

ENKA had previously undertaken and completed simple cycle parts of two power plant projects in Iraq which was also fully supported by UKEF. The principal value of the support was USD 737 million.

About UK Export Finance

UK Export Finance is the UK’s export credit agency and a government department, working alongside the Department for International Trade as an integral part of its strategy and operations.

Established in 1919, it exists to ensure that no viable UK export should fail for a lack of finance from the private market. It provides finance and insurance to help exporters win, fulfil and get paid for export contracts.

Contact

Dow And Jones Limited was wound up in the public interest on 17 March 2020 in the High Court of Justice before Deputy Judge Jones. The Official Receiver has been appointed as liquidator.

At the hearing to consider the petition to wind up the company, the court heard that Dow and Jones Limited was incorporated in September 2015, with a registered office in Sidcup, Kent, and a trading address in Central London until May 2019.

The Insolvency Service, however, conducted confidential investigations into the wine merchants having received complaints about Dow and Jones’s trading practices.

Investigators discovered that the company sold wine to members of the public as an investment opportunity. Dow and Jones, however, usually sold the stock to those investor customers at double the normal retail price, making it unlikely that investors would ever get their original capital back or make a profit.

Sales staff working for Dow and Jones falsely claimed to investors that additional purchases were required to ensure that a portfolio of wines could be sold quicker and at a higher price.

Dow and Jones had also failed to honour customer orders going back to 2016, with the company also having filed inaccurate accounts at Companies House.

In her judgment, Deputy Judge Jones stated that “there is something extremely wrong about this company”, before confirming that the promised returns to investors were “vastly overstated”.

Irshard Mohammed, Senior Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said

Similar to boiler room operations, Dow and Jones used sales scripts from previously failed companies, which assisted salesmen to convince people, including the vulnerable, to invest their money in unregulated investments. Even those customers who received the wine they had paid for lost a sizable proportion of their investment, as the wine was materially overpriced.

The courts recognised the unscrupulous nature of Dow and Jones when it wound-up the company and our advice is always to reject unsolicited investment offers that sound too good to be true.

All enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to:

• The Official Receiver, Public Interest Unit, 16th Floor, 1 Westfield Avenue, Stratford, London, E20 1HZ
• Telephone: 020 7637 1110
• Email: piu.or@insolvency.gov.uk

Notes to editors

Dow And Jones Limited (Company number: 09778709) was incorporated on 15 September 2015. The current registered office is located at Onega House, 112 Main Road, Sidcup, Kent, DA14 6NE and it had trading addresses at 4th Floor, 50 Essex Street, London, WC2R 3JF until May 2019 and 16 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6BX, being a virtual office address.

The current recorded director of the company is Mr Anthony Collins, formerly known as Kyrone Collins, whose date of birth is recorded as being in June 1988.

The Petition was presented by The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (“BEIS”) on 12 February 2020 in the High Court of Justice, Business and Property Courts in England and Wales (CR-2020-001052), under the provisions of section 124A of the Insolvency Act 1986 following confidential enquiries by Company Investigations under section 447 of the Companies Act 1985, as amended.

Company Investigations, part of the Insolvency Service, uses powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Information about how to complain about a live company.

Information about the work of the Insolvency Service.

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

The Government of the Pitcairn Islands has published an ambitious five-year Marine Protected Area (MPA) management plan to protect over 841,910 square km of ocean in one of the most remote places on earth.

This plan will further protect the Pitcairn Islands’ untouched coral reefs and safeguard threatened species such as the humpback whale, green turtles and seabirds such as the Henderson Petrel.

It builds upon the work already delivered by the Government since the designation of Pitcairn’s Highly Protected MPA in 2016, one of the largest in the world. These include the development of a whale watching code of conduct and training for local operators to ensure whale watching tours could be delivered without disturbing the animals. The management plan takes initiatives like these even further whilst also underpinning the economic aspirations for the territory.

The nearly pristine nature of the Pitcairn Islands marine ecosystems means that its MPA has an irreplaceable unique global value. In addition, Henderson Island, a designated World Heritage Site, is one of the best remaining examples of an elevated coral atoll ecosystem.

The extreme clarity of the water means coral can grow at depths greater than expected for most Pacific reefs and potentially, Ducie Island’s coral reefs may also be more resilient to climate change. Over 1,250 marine species have been recorded, including three species of whales that are listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List. The area is also home to hawksbill and green turtles (critically endangered and endangered, respectively); as well as three species of endangered seabirds; one critically endangered fish and one endangered fish. There are also five species of endemic bony fishes found nowhere else on Earth.

The UK Government’s Blue Belt Programme, Pew Trusts, RSPB and other key partners have assisted the Government of the Pitcairn Islands in the development of their management plan to ensure day-to-day management and protective measures are enforced across the MPA.

The management plan is critical to the success of the MPA and the protection of the marine environment by ensuring that all supporting legal, institutional and policy frameworks are in place, that the objectives of the MPA are clearly defined and all the necessary resources – in both finance and people are secured. The plan has been shaped by Pitcairn Islanders, who were involved in a public consultation in 2018.

Lord Goldsmith, UK Minister for the Environment, commented

The Pitcairn Islands are a great demonstration of real ambition on marine protection. This tiny population is already working to safeguard its vast MPA. But with the publication and implementation of its management plan it is laying down a statement of intent to ensure the health of its ecosystem, and the potential for its unique coral reefs to further inform our understanding of climate change. This is a very positive step, especially when all eyes are on COP26, and we have an urgent need to share and increase our knowledge of how climate change is affecting the health of our oceans.

I’d like to congratulate the islanders, who have followed both Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha in the publication of their MPA management plans, showing the fantastic progress being made under the Blue Belt Programme, with support from key organisations such as the Pew Trust and the RSPB.

Key aspects of the MPA include:

• All harmful activities, such as fishing mining and dumping waste, which may threaten vulnerable marine ecosystems and endangered species are banned within 99.5% (832,738 square kilometres) of the MPA.
• The no-take MPA has closed off areas previously exposed to fishing and other extractive activities, ensuring a positive impact for these environments.
• The remaining part of the MPA (the territorial seas around Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, an area known as Adams Seamount and a transit zone between Pitcairn Island and Adams Seamount) only permits activities that are managed sustainably, such as fishing by local residents.
• The new Marine Conservation Regulations set out how activities within the territorial seas will be managed to ensure that they don’t damage the important habitats and species found there. The management plan also identifies and sets out strategies to minimize the challenges Pitcairn Islands’ marine environment faces through possible increased threat of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing; pollution (marine oil spills and plastics); anchor damage; erosion and run-off from land; invasive non-native species and climate change these threats.

Alasdair Hamilton, Deputy Governor of the Pitcairn Islands, said:

This management plan will be an important blueprint to help us protect and monitor Pitcairn’s unique and precious marine environment – home to pristine coral reefs and species not seen anywhere else on earth. These areas of rich marine biodiversity are mostly untouched by humans, meaning the health of the ecosystem is an important way for us to assess not only the impacts of climate change, but the benefits of having more Marine Protected Areas globally.

I am delighted that the small but capable Pitcairn Island community can undertake such important work in delivering on this plan and demonstrating how Pitcairn’s MPA is an exemplar model of global action to protect our oceans.

Pitcairn has a proud cultural heritage and is keen that the whole of the local community benefits from the MPA through the potential of new marine eco-tourism.

Michele Christian – Division Manager, Government of Pitcairn Islands, commented:

The Blue Belt Programme continues to be an extremely important piece of work for the Pitcairn Islands. This year we’re excited to put in place our new MPA Management Plan, which will bring clear guidance on how to manage and effectively protect our valuable marine environment.

It’s a very exciting time for Pitcairn, as along with the publication of its management plan, several Pitcairn Islanders have taken part in a science expedition, collecting data on the health of its MPA. The scientific survey has been an amazing opportunity for local engagement, the experience of seeing first hand the wonders of nature both on land and sea. We now share a greater understanding of how important it is to protect the strong and vulnerable species by ensuring that we have robust management and monitoring systems leading into the future. Thank you, Blue Belt, for giving us – the Pitcairn community – the opportunity and lasting memories of the special place we live in – what a privilege. Hopefully the findings will be out in the Autumn.

Read the full Pitcairn MPA Management Plan

The Blue Belt Programme is a UK Government initiative to enhance marine protection across over 4 million square kilometres of marine environment in the UK Overseas Territories.

Overseas Territories part of the Blue Belt Programme who protect their waters with the support of this initiative, include Ascension Island, the British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, the Pitcairn Islands, St Helena and Tristan da Cunha – covering an area 17 times the size of the UK and over one percent of the Earth’s entire ocean.

This flagship Programme has been central to the UK Government’s ambition of leading action to tackle the serious global problems of illegal fishing, species extinction and climate change. The Programme has underpinned the UK’s 25 Year Environment Plan and supported the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goals. More recently, it has supported the UK’s commitment to ensure 30% of the world’s oceans are protected by 2030.