PPP & Real Asset Investment Services

Clients who fund and invest in healthcare assets are under considerable pressure to ensure that their projects deliver best value both in economic terms and in the quality of service they provide to all stakeholders, including healthcare providers, staff and patients.

Our dedicated and experienced project finance team has extensive experience in the PPP arena. We provide independent technical and operational advice to funders, investors and NHS trusts across a wide variety of PPP projects ranging from acute, to mental health, to primary care facilities.

We provide investors with front-end advisory and management services, with understanding, identifying and managing risk as a value enhancement opportunity at the core of everything we do. Our large team of advisers offers a flexible resource to undertake projects efficiently, and the experience to fully understand and communicate the risks involved to support our clients in making informed investment decisions.

Our team blends the technical expertise of WSP’s global network with the commercial and contractual transaction acumen that comes from long experience of advising investors on privately financed infrastructure and property asset transactions. We provide the full range of services required for the management and delivery of PPP projects throughout the transaction cycle. These services, across five specialist workstreams, harness our technical and commercial expertise in PPP and infrastructure development:

• Due Diligence
• Technical Services
• SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) Management
• Lifecycle
• Facilities Management

As a completely independent organisation, we are not affiliated to any fund and have a reputation for strong and independent management. Our multi-disciplinary, in-house expertise covers all the required technical and commercial disciplines, enabling us to administer contracts in their entirety, thus significantly accelerating the process and protecting the interest of equity holders through continuity of service in all eventualities during the lifetime of the contract.

Our due diligence experience covers all facets of the healthcare sector, from small GP practices to large acute hospitals.

We provide technical due diligence to investors on primary market transactions, for the design, construction and operation of new facilities; and on secondary market transactions acting for both the vendors and purchasers. Our global resource combined with in-depth local knowledge enables us to handle portfolios of all sizes, from single projects, such as a new hospital for the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, to international portfolios. We conducted Vendor Due Diligence (VDD) on 31 assets throughout Europe for Dutch Infrastructure Fund, whose portfolio incorporates three healthcare assets, including Barts Hospital in London.

Our services include advice for refinancing and project and performance monitoring.

Every healthcare project must meet its performance objectives whilst remaining affordable and providing value for money. The challenge for investors and healthcare providers is to ensure that all aspects of their buildings meet the required technical and regulatory standards from the earliest design stages and throughout the lifetime of the project.

We provide a wide range of services to support investors, contractors and operators from bid stage, through construction and into operation. These include supporting consortia in successfully bidding for healthcare projects; acting as independent certifier to ensure projects are designed and delivered according to the contractual requirements; and acting as employer’s agent or clerk of works to ensure projects meet the requirements for quality of build and compliance both during construction and once they are operational.

We continue to support investors across their portfolios, which includes a range of healthcare assets, delivering various surveys such as condition, wall fire, fire compartmentation and cladding. As an example, we are acting as Independent Tester on a project to rehouse a hospital, two GP practices and the public dental Service in Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland in a new purpose-built combined facility, ensuring that all parties undertake their obligations in respect of the Project Agreement and that the works are undertaken in accordance with the contractual requirements

In addition, we work on behalf of NHS trusts to support them through the process of preparing projects for marketing to potential investors.

Our independent multi-disciplinary approach and level of technical financial and general management support is unparalleled in this market sector, placing us at the forefront of companies who offer SPV management services.

Since launching our SPV management service in 2013, we have secured 24 SPV management contracts for investors including InfraRed, Equitix, Vinci Investments and Macquarie Bank. Our role is to support the SPV board of directors in interpreting the contractual and operational obligations, allowing investors to fully understand operational risks and recommending and managing how best to move forward with all stakeholders for the benefit of the project.. When Tameside and Salford PPP hospitals were procured by two Health Authorities under a single batch with the aim of delivering both operational and procurement efficiencies, we were awarded the management services contract, managing a seamless transition within an eight-week window, thus supporting the Trusts in meeting the needs of patients across Greater Manchester. Our approach is proactive and innovative as we constantly seek to drive up the quality and efficiency of the service

In addition to providing general management, financial management and company secretary roles for SPVs, we also act in a strategic advisory role as trouble-shooters when SPVs encounter problems, working as part of the team, and calling upon our technical resources where necessary, to resolve them.

In 2015, just over a year after establishing our SPV management service, we were awarded SPV Management Company of the Year at the Partnerships Awards 2015 (Silver Award). In May 2018, we were again awarded SPV Management Company of the Year – Partnerships Bulletin Awards 2018 (Silver Award).

We support investors and operators on projects and portfolios across all aspects of the lifecycle of their asset.

Our expertise begins at bid stage, where we set real targets for the operator to drive efficiencies and hence cost reductions during the asset life. Our ability to call upon technical resources enables us to provide detailed scrutiny of lifecycle proposals. For example, we supported the SPV with the management of lifecycle delivery of a new c£135m wing at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

In managing the lifecycle of their assets we create bespoke project and portfolio lifecycle dashboards for investors, aiming to add real value across their portfolios. Our lifecycle services include actively managing the maintenance cycle of assets on behalf of the investor, benchmarking, reprofiling the lifecycle model to ensure it remains fit for purpose and, where appropriate, managing the potential extraction of surplus funds.

We provide facilities management (FM) advice from the bid stage, where we can support consortia in developing the service level specifications; calibrate and test the payment mechanism; and benchmark the FM costs. A typical example is a new building for Lewisham PFI Hospital in London, the Riverside Building, for which we were engaged by the SPV to provide a helpdesk review and FM retendering paper. With a focus on day-to-day operational performance, we have significant experience in carrying out FM compliance audits; managing the market testing of FM to ensure operators’ services remain relevant and cost-effective; and re-calibrating and interpreting payment mechanisms where there is ambiguity between parties.