Interserve Regulatory News (IRV)

19 Sep 2008 07:00

INTERSERVE CONSORTIUM NAMED PREFERRED BIDDER FOR ‚£300m ENNISKILLEN HOSPITAL PFI

An Interserve consortium has been named preferred bidder, by the Western Health and Social Care Trust, for the PFI contract to create and maintain a new acute hospital at Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The 315-bed hospital, worth over ‚£300 million in construction and facilities management (FM) services, will be the first in Northern Ireland to provide 100 per cent single-bed, en-suite rooms.

Interserve will invest some ‚£7.8 million in the project, representing 31.5 per cent of the equity and subordinated debt, and will provide "hard" FM services worth ‚£75 million over a 30-year period once the hospital has been completed. These include mechanical and electrical maintenance, estates management, grounds maintenance, utilities management and the provision and operation of a helpdesk.

The 70,000 sq m hospital will be located on a 57-acre greenfield site at Wolf Lough to the north of Enniskillen, an environment offering a peaceful location with distant views. It will provide a wide range of inpatient, outpatient and day-case services including accident and emergency, diagnostic services, an observation and assessment unit, elective/planned surgery and acute medical/ surgical services.

Following financial close on the contract, which is expected in the first half of 2009, construction will be undertaken by a joint venture between FCC Construction SA and P Elliott & Co who, along with Allied Irish Bank plc, are the other consortium members. Completion of the hospital is planned for 2012.

"This will be one of the most modern hospitals in the UK," said Adrian Ringrose, Chief Executive of Interserve. "The project will be our fifth major health PFI and combines our expertise in this sector with our longstanding presence in Northern Ireland, where we already provide services in three PFI schools, shall shortly be doing so in another and have been named preferred bidder for two more. We look forward to using our experience to ensure that the hospital is provided and kept in excellent condition for the people living in Enniskillen and the south-west of Northern Ireland."

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For further information please contact:

Giles Scott 0118 960 2307

Head of Corporate Communications

Elizabeth Morley / Tom Roberts 020 7379 5151MaitlandAbout Interserve

Interserve Plc (www.interserve.com) is a services, maintenance and building group operating in the public and private sectors in the UK and internationally. It offers advice, design, construction and maintenance services for buildings and infrastructure, runs the operational systems and back-office services that support them and provides a range of plant and equipment in specialist fields. Interserve is based in the UK and is a FTSE 250 company. It has revenue of ‚£1.7 billion and a workforce of 50,000 people worldwide.