21 Jun 2012 07:00
21 June 2012
INTERSERVE PFI ASSET TRANSACTION
Interserve, the international support services and construction group, has reached agreement to sell to CFIG Unicorn Holdings SPV, LLC, an investment vehicle managed by Credit Suisse's Customized Fund Investment Group ("CFIG Fund"), part of its holding(1) in the University College London Hospitals (UCLH) PFI project.
The transaction comprises a three-step restructuring of holdings in the project:
* Interserve will sell a 16.7 per cent holding in the project to the CFIG
Fund;
* Interserve has exercised its pre-emption rights in relation to 80 per cent
of Balfour Beatty's holding in UCLH, funding for which will be provided by
Interserve and the CFIG Fund in equal proportions;
* Interserve has granted the CFIG Fund an option, exercisable within 45 days,
to purchase Interserve's share of this pre-empted stake.
On completion of these steps Interserve will have generated £35 million in cash and will retain ownership of 16.7 per cent of the UCLH PFI project.
The value of the complete sale, following the exercise of the option, implies a discount rate of under 6 per cent and a non-recurring 2012 profit impact of £30 million. Profit attributable in 2011 to the assets sold, which have a gross value of £3.0 million, was £2.0 million.
Interserve began working with UCLH as part of the winning PFI consortium in 2000. It managed the transition and migration of services from the old premises to the new hospital and will continue to provide facilities management services until the end of the PFI contract in 2040, when the hospital will be handed over to UCLH NHS Foundation Trust.
"The sale of part of our interest in the UCLH PFI project demonstrates the ongoing enactment of our strategy of making our PFI portfolio self-financing over the medium term," comments Tim Haywood, Interserve's Group Finance Director. "Our approach is to dispose of assets once we have added most of the value possible in a given contract. We have taken the opportunity to do this with UCLH, which comes after several recent investments including in the South-West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, and the West Yorkshire Police PFI."
- Ends -
For further information please contact:
Giles Scott 0118 960 2307 Head of Corporate Communications
Sam Turvey 020 7379 5151 Maitland About Interserve
Interserve's vision is to be the Trusted Partner of all our stakeholders. We are one of the world's foremost support services and construction companies, operating in the public and private sectors in the UK and internationally. We offer advice, design, construction, equipment and facilities management services for society's infrastructure. Interserve is based in the UK and is listed in the FTSE 250 index. We have gross revenue of £2.3 billion and a workforce of over 50,000 people worldwide. Website: www.interserve.com.
(1) At 20 June 2012 Interserve, Balfour Beatty and Semperian each owned 33.3 per cent of the UCLH PFI project
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