| Second PPP project closed |
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| Ireland’s second Public Private Partnership (PPP) deal has been finalised. The project, completed on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Noel Dempsey, TD, and the Cork Institute of Technology will result in a •51.3 million, state of the art National Maritime training facility in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork. |
A&L Goodbody and Deloitte & Touche were among those who oversaw the closing of the project, which is being financed by Bank of Scotland for Focus Education who will build, operate and maintain the building for the next 26 years. Focus Education is a joint venture between Bovis Lend Lease and Uberior Infrastructure Investments (No 2) Limited (formerly Halifax Project Investments Limited).
Other advisors included Linklaters, the UK law firm that acted for the lenders to the project, with McCann FitzGerald providing Irish legal advice.
The overall contract value in net present value terms including capital, operating and financing costs amounts to €90 million. This includes an initial capital build cost of €51 million. The funds will be raised by the private sector, with a mixture of debt and equity. 90 per cent of the funds raised will be via senior debt provided by Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) and 10 per cent will be via equity and sub-ordinated debt provided by Focus Education.
Eamonn Kearns, director of PPP at the Department of Finance said, ‘Tremendous progress has been made on policy development with the framework for PPPs. A vital new element has been added to the structures for delivering PPPs in the form of the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA). In creating NDFA the lessons learnt from the initial pilot projects have been given practical expression in the responsibilities of the new agency in providing expert financial information to assist state authorities in putting in place the best funding mechanisms and sound financial management arrangements in public infrastructure projects.’
There are around 40 projects at various stages of procurement. This is in line with the Government’s objective to pilot the PPP approach across various sectors including national roads, public transport, education and environmental services.
The first PPP contract, also an educational project and worth €81 million, was awarded to Jarvis plc at the end of 2001. The next milestone will be the signing of another major national road project later this year. |
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| Article appeared in the March 2003 issue.
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