Mark Spain, associate director, IBI Corporate Finance, speaking at a recent conference, 'Public Private Partnerships in Ireland lll', stated that the Irish Government and consumers will be the ultimate beneficiaries of a more competitive market through the establishment of Public Private Partnership ('PPP') projects. The Irish market for PPP projects will benefit from competitive pricing as a result of
the UK experience.
According to Spain the financing market for PFI projects in the UK has become significantly more competitive in the past couple of years. UK bankers, sponsors and third party equity providers now have a better understanding of the real level of commercial risk involved in PFI projects. Consequentially, these institutions and organisations are very interested in the Irish PPP process, seeing it as an extension of the UK PFI market. Spain underlines the benefits of familiarity between the two markets with Irish and UK business language and practice being similar. In addition, the main Irish banks have been involved in syndicates that have provided debt finance to UK PFI projects. Preliminary contacts with Irish fund managers suggest they will also be interested in setting up an investment fund to take equity stakes in Irish PPP Projects. |
