Work in Project Finance

We advised the Mid Essex Hospital Services National Health Service Trust on the Broomfield Hospital PFI Project, which has now successfully reached financial close. The project involves the centralisation of the Trust’s acute services at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, Essex, and will provide a new building with 43,000 m2 of accommodation on the hospital site together with facilities management services to the new building. The Trust’s private sector partner is a Bouygues/HSBC consortium. The total funding for the project is £210m, provided principally through the issue of index-linked bonds which have the benefit of a financial guarantee from Ambac.

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We advised Mid Europa Partners (MEP) on the acquisition of One GmbH, the third largest mobile operator in Austria, from its existing shareholders, for an enterprise value of about €1.4bn.  The acquisition was completed on 2 October 2007.  MEP becomes the controlling shareholder in One GmbH, with a 65% stake, alongside France Telecom which will hold a 35% stake.  The transaction represents the largest industrial leveraged buy-out in Austria to date.  MEP is a leading private equity firm which has been investing in Central and Eastern Europe since 1999.  It advises and manages funds with committed capital in excess of €2.2bn. 

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We advised the Bouygues Consortium, a longstanding client, on the North Middlesex Hospital PFI Project.  The project involves the replacement of over half the existing buildings on the hospital site and the ongoing maintenance of the remaining estate.  The capital value of the scheme is £111m.  The Royal Bank of Canada and Dresdner Bank each provided half the senior finance.  This is the third major hospital project that BLP have completed for the Bouygues Consortium, which comprises Bouygues UK, Ecovert FM and HSBC Infrastructure. 

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We advised Jubail Water and Power Company on the financing of Saudi Arabia’s US$3.5bn Marafiq Independent Water and Power Production (IWPP) facility.  We initially advised the bidding consortium (which submitted the winning bid for the project), which comprises Suez Tractebel SA, Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power Projects and Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC), who each hold a 20 percent stake in the project, with the remaining 40 percent being held jointly by Saudi Arabia’s Power and Water Company for Jubail and Yanbu, Saudi Electricity Company and the Public Investment Fund.  The project will produce 2,750MW of electricity and 800,000 cubic metres of desalinated water per day.

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We advised Mid Europa Partners on its acquisition of Heidelberger Calcium Aluminates, the calcium aluminate cement business division of Heidelberg Cement Group. This is the private equity fund’s first Croatian acquisition.

Mid Europa Partners are the leading private equity players in Central and Eastern Europe. The scope of the transaction includes Heidelberg Cement’s 92.4% stake in Istra Cement d.o.o., a production facility based in Croatia, as well as two trading entities in Germany and the United States.

As lawyers for the purchaser, we played a critical role in the structure of the transaction which required both share and asset acquisitions spanning multiple jurisdictions including Croatia, Germany, The Netherlands, Singapore and the United States.

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