LAWFUEL – Law, legal, attorney, law firm newsDLA has advised Catalyst Healthcare, a PFI hospital consortium comprising the Bank of Scotland and Bovis Land Lease in a groundbreaking credit guarantee finance scheme (CGF) deal, the first of its kind in the UK.
The £220m PFI healthcare investment is the first scheme to be part funded under HM Treasury’s CGF system and is for a new oncology unit at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds. The unit will be the biggest cancer treatment centre in Europe with over 300 beds and will offer a full range of services including radiotherapy, surgery and haematology.
Under the scheme the consortium used Treasury gilts to cover the bulk of the finance instead of private sector lending. Catalyst Healthcare still carries the risk but the overall costs of financing are reduced due to the Government’s ability to borrow money cheaply.
The DLA team was lead by commercial & projects partner Nick Maltby with banking partner Tim Littler providing advice on CGF, construction partner Andrew Symms on the construction elements of the scheme and real estate partner Helen Barraclough on property issues.
Nick Maltby said: “This is a tremendous achievement. This is the first scheme to complete the CGF route, which it did in only two months from the decision to pursue CGF. This deal shows that there is a future for government financing of PFI.”
HM Treasury was advised by Linklaters and Bank of Scotland by Clifford Chance. The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s advisers were Dickinson Dees.
