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Balfour Beatty appointed preferred bidder for the £250 million PPP Pinderfields and Pontefract Hospitals development project

The 35-year concession, for which there is a programme to reach financial close by January 2006, is central to the reconfiguration of health services in the area. It will deliver a new acute inpatient hospital in Wakefield on the existing Pinderfields Hospital site and a new Diagnostic and Treatment Centre in Pontefract.

Balfour Beatty is likely to invest some £15 million of equity in the project. Balfour Beatty Group companies will be responsible for the majority of the construction and all of the building services and physical facilities management.

Commenting on Consort’s appointment as preferred bidder, Balfour Beatty Chief Executive, Mike Welton, said: “We are delighted to be successful in bidding for the largest PPP hospital development in Yorkshire. When complete, the project will enable the transformation of hospital services across Wakefield and Pontefract and the optimisation of services at Dewsbury District Hospital to achieve the Trust’s ambitions of high-quality patient care. Balfour Beatty is bringing to the task many decades of experience in working as a key contractor in the healthcare sector and its expertise in planning, constructing and operating five other large PPP hospitals.”

Lord Lofthouse, Chairman of The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We look forward to working with Balfour Beatty to progress our plans to provide our local communities with two brand new, state-of-the-art hospitals that will offer the highest quality healthcare in the best possible environment.”

The concession company, Consort Healthcare (Mid Yorkshire), is a joint venture between Balfour Beatty and the Royal Bank of Scotland. The construction work will be carried out by a joint venture between Balfour Beatty Construction, Haden Young (the building services arm of the Balfour Beatty Group) and M J Gleeson. Facilities management for all estates and facilities services (including catering, cleaning, portering, security, linen and laundry) will be provided by Haden Building Management, another Balfour Beatty subsidiary, under an arrangement that could yield over £400 million of long-term service revenue – the largest healthcare services contract secured to date by the company.

It is expected that the new Pontefract Hospital will open in 2008/9 and that the new Pinderfields Hospital will open in 2009/10.

Consort Healthcare is the PPP concession company for four major hospitals. Two of these are fully operational; the University Hospital North Durham, which was opened in 2001, and the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, which became fully operational early in 2003. Construction work for the new Blackburn Hospital began in July 2003. Consort Healthcare is also preferred bidder on the £521 million Birmingham New Hospitals Project, which is due to achieve financial close in spring 2005 and where advanced construction works are already under way. Balfour Beatty is also a partner in Health Management Group, the concession company responsible for the University College London Hospital, and in the joint venture engaged in its construction.

Enquiries to:

Tim Sharp
Tel: 020 7216 6884
www.balfourbeatty.com


Notes to Editors

1. In addition to its own PPP hospital concession projects, Balfour Beatty Group companies are also working as contractors on a range of other major healthcare projects, including the Stoke Mandeville Hospital under a £24 million project, the £75 million Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the £13.5 million Lochgilphead Community Hospital in Scotland.
2. Balfour Beatty is a major player in other UK Government healthcare initiatives, such as the £16 million Moorfields Eye Hospital under the ProCure 21 initiative and LIFT projects worth £23 million, under which the first East London Scheme was opened last week.
3. Balfour Beatty already has a substantial presence in Yorkshire.

   Through Balfour Beatty Utilities, it is responsible for the £120 million, five-year contract to design, build, upgrade and rehabilitate Yorkshire Water’s clean water distribution network.

   Through RCS, it is responsible for the five-year, £100 million contract to maintain the entire local authority road network in North Yorkshire including winter maintenance, street lighting, gully emptying and fleet maintenance.

   In Rotherham, it is responsible, under a 28-year, £100 million, PPP concession, for all the construction, upgrade and refurbishment work on the local authority’s school stock, including building at least six new schools.

   Through Connect Roads, it is responsible for the management and maintenance of the M1-A1 Link Road.

   The company is building five schools in Calderdale in a contract worth £45 million.

4. Balfour Beatty is a world-class engineering, construction and services group, well positioned in infrastructure markets which offer significant growth potential. Its partnerships with public and private customers generate secure, long-term income. Its financial position, with significant net cash and with strong operating cash flows, offers continuing flexibility to add additional capacity and expertise to the business mix and to make appropriate investments in PPP and other long-term growth opportunities.