News

HICL Infrastructure Company Limited – Acquisition of two new investments for £23.5m

4 April 2019 Investments

HICL Infrastructure Company Limited (HICL or the Company, and together with its subsidiaries the Group), the listed infrastructure investment company, is pleased to announce the acquisition of a 26% interest in Holdfast Training Services Limited (Holdfast), a PPP joint venture with Babcock International Group plc that supports the Royal School of Military Engineering, from a subsidiary of Carillion plc (Carillion), and the acquisition of a 40% interest in the Sheffield BSF Schools project (Sheffield BSF) from Vinci Investments Limited.

Holdfast is a 30-year concession to design, build, refurbish and maintain 32 new buildings, 21 refurbishments and five training areas across three U.K. locations on behalf of the U.K. Ministry of Defence. The project was signed in August 2008 and is nearing the end of a seven year phased construction programme, undertaken by Carillion Construction, which is expected to complete in early 2015. The project includes the provision of hard and soft facilities management (FM) as well as specialist training and training support services all provided by Holdfast Training Services.

Sheffield BSF is a 27-year PFI concession to design, build, finance, maintain and operate two new secondary schools and one new special educational needs secondary school in Sheffield for Sheffield City Council. The project was signed in July 2007 and has been fully operational since September 2009, with construction having been undertaken by a subsidiary of Vinci Construction U.K. which also provides the hard and soft FM services, including catering.

The consideration paid by the Group for the investments, which amounted to approximately £23.5m in aggregate, is in line with the current valuation of similar U.K. social infrastructure projects in the Group’s portfolio.

The acquisitions, which were funded by way of drawings under the Group’s revolving credit facility, leave the Group with a current funding requirement of around £23m and take the number of infrastructure investments in the Group’s portfolio to 93.

James O’Halloran, Investment Director, Infrastructure of InfraRed Capital Partners Limited (HICL’s Investment Adviser) said:

“We are pleased to have been able to secure further acquisitions from vendors with whom we have longstanding relationships. These investments characterise the Group’s core strategy of investing in social infrastructure projects with public sector clients and with availability-linked revenues. Sheffield BSF is fully operational and Holdfast is partially operational with potential for some capital growth once the final stages of construction are completed in a year’s time.

“We are looking forward to working with all the stakeholders to ensure that Holdfast’s final construction phases are delivered on time and budget and that both projects continue to operate successfully.”

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