Thierry Ravot, Occitanie Regional Director of Caisse des Dépôts, Tanguy Desrousseaux, responsible for infrastructure and public sector financing activities at the European Investment Bank (EIB), and Gilles Halbout, President of the "Languedoc-Roussillon Universités" Community of Universities and Institutes (ComUE) today signed a joint financing agreement totalling EUR 183m for the development, construction and refurbishment work under the Montpellier Campus Operation, in the presence of Pierre Pouessel, Prefect of Hérault, Armande Le Pellec Muller, Rector of the Occitanie Academic Region and the Montpelier Academy and Chancellor of the universities, Hussein Bourgi, Occitanie Regional Counsellor, and Max Levita, Vice-President of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole and Deputy Mayor of Montpellier.

This financing package will be used to carry out major development, construction and refurbishment work on the Montpellier campuses, including several large-scale schemes (Science Village, Atrium Learning Centre, physics laboratories, pharmaceutical faculty, Raimon Llull Library, etc.).

This wide-ranging project has a three-pronged objective. It will help to improve living and learning conditions for students, teachers and researchers in buildings that will reflect the excellence of Montpellier’s higher education establishments. It will also develop links between the city and the universities by means of a campus integrated into the urban environment, while furthering the energy transition by reducing the consumption of the university buildings.

The work will begin during 2017 and is expected to be completed by 2022, the estimated delivery date of the final building.

Caisse des Dépôts is advancing EUR 86m and the EIB EUR 97m to finance the project, which will enable ComEU Languedoc-Roussillon Universités to benefit from attractive financial terms over a long term.

Caisse des Dépôts is helping to finance the renovation of university campuses with long-term loans under the EUR 20bn savings funds loan facility open to the local public sector. Since 2009, more than EUR 1bn of loans have been granted for university projects.

With this new loan, provided on optimum terms thanks to the EIB's AAA rating, the EU bank is stepping up its support for French universities under the national “Operation Campus” programme. Overall, 12 campus operations have now been approved by the EIB’s Board of Directors - ten of which have already been signed - representing a total investment of over EUR 1.1bn. The EIB is thus supporting the development of world-class and sustainable campuses that are attractive for students, teachers and researchers, both nationally and internationally. Youth training and employment are one of our main priorities.