By: MaST LIFT Co

ExcellCare Ltd, a joint venture between Equion and the Bank of Scotland, has signed a £75m public private sector partnership contract with the Department of Health, through Partnerships for Health, to deliver 21st century primary health and social care and local authority facilities in Manchester, Salford and Trafford (MAST).

ExcellCare Ltd, a joint venture between Equion and the Bank of Scotland, has signed a £75m public private sector partnership contract with the Department of Health, through Partnerships for Health, to deliver 21st century primary health and social care and local authority facilities in Manchester, Salford and Trafford (MAST). The agreement will be delivered under the Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) initiative.

MAST is one of the largest and most ambitious LIFT projects in development involving six primary care trusts, three local authorities and the Greater Manchester Ambulance Service.

The first phase of the project will cost around £20 million and include four separate schemes. The capital value of the work will increase by some £55 million over the first five years as nine additional schemes are brought forward.

MAST is the third of ExcellCare's six LIFT projects to reach financial close after Sandwell in January and Greater Nottinghamshire in early June and is the 13th out of 42 to close at a national level.

ExcellCare Chief Executive, Alan Prigmore, said: “Forging successful partnerships with the public sector is a key part of the ExcellCare approach. Working closely with our MAST partners and in full consultation with the local communities, we have developed innovative solutions to meet local authority, health and social service requirements. A priority has been to produce designs that are sufficiently flexible to allow service provision to be amended to meet the evolving needs of the community.”

John Glester, Chair of the Strategic Partnering Board said “These schemes will improve and increase the range and quality of health and social care facilities for the people of Manchester, Salford and Trafford, and make an important contribution to the continued regeneration of the conurbation.”

Brian Johns, Chief Executive of Partnerships for Health said: “This is a fantastic achievement for Partnerships for Health and the new Manchester, Salford and Trafford LIFT scheme. Modern, patient-centred, state-of-the-art premises will transform primary and social care in this area and is the very essence of what we are trying to do in LIFT. These are challenging and rewarding times that clearly mark a huge step-change in how primary and social care will be delivered across Greater Manchester and I pay tribute to ExcellCare, the primary care trusts, the ambulance trust and all the local authorities.”

The construction of the Manchester, Salford and Trafford NHS LIFT facilities will be carried out by Laing O’Rourke Northern Ltd. Work is due to begin next month with the first tranche of schemes due to be completed in 2005.

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Media Enquiries for Equion: Clare Hinkley/Zena James 020 7631 0990

Media Enquiries for MAST: Erica Dyson 0161 912 1167

Notes to Editors

• Capital value of the project is £75 million with initial £40m debt financing.
• Laing O’Rourke will lead construction. Lead architects are Taylor Young.
• The financial advisers to ExcellCare are PWC and the legal advisers are Denton Wilde Sapte. The senior debt funding is being provided by Bank of Scotland who were advised by McGrigors.
• ExcellCare is preferred bidder on three further LIFT schemes in North NottinghamshEquion is a specialist provider of facilities in the PFI and PPP markets with a long-term perspective and approach. The company manages and delivers projects from planning and funding through to design, construction and operation. It is actively involved in the management of a wide range of health, police, education, defence and special purpose government facilities including:
  • the new Norfolk & Norwich, and Queen Elizabeth (Greenwich) Hospitals
  • the Ministry of Defence Main Building refurbishment in Whitehall
  • the Joint Services Command and Staff College at Shrivenham
  • Highlands Secondary School in Enfield
  • South East Essex College at Southend
  • four police stations in South London for the Metropolitan police
• Equion and its parent company, John Laing plc, won the Infrastructure Journal Developer of the Year Award in February 2004. http://www.equion.plc.uk/
  
• Bank of Scotland Corporate Banking’s Infrastructure Finance team is a leading funder of Public Private Partnership projects. It has funded more than 100 PPP projects and has provided equity investment as part of an integrated funding package to more than 40 projects, equating to £10 billion of project value across the UK and Europe. It has participated in the funding of more than 8,000 acute hospital bed spaces across the UK and is a major investor in the improvement of Britain’s hospitals and health centres, with several more projects currently at preferred bidder stage.