LAWFUEL – Press Release Service A cross-practice team at Clifford …

LAWFUEL – Press Release Service A cross-practice team at Clifford Chance has acted for senior funders FSA and EIB, and lead managers Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Barclays Capital

A cross-practice team at Clifford Chance has acted for senior funders FSA and EIB, and lead managers Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Barclays Capital, in the recently closed £380m St Helens and Knowsley Hospitals PFI in north west England. The deal has been financed with £178.3m index-linked guaranteed secured bonds (which includes £25.3m in variation bonds) and £149.2m index-linked EIB secured debt. Both bonds and EIB debt are wrapped by monoline insurer FSA. The bonds were priced on 1 June 2006 with financial close occurring on 7 June 2006.

FSA and EIB are supporting the NewHospitals consortium, which comprises Taylor Woodrow and Innisfree. The consortium are providing approximately £30m in equity, while an additional £64m of the project will be financed using capital payments from the St Helens and Knowsley Hospital Services NHS Trust.

The funds will finance two new hospitals on sites at St Helens and Whiston in Merseyside, for a concession term of just over 41 years. When complete, the hospitals will provide a total of 747 beds – 651 at Whiston and 96 at St Helens – with construction scheduled to be completed by September 2008 at the St Helens site and by June 2011 at Whiston.

As with the Barts Hospital and Royal London project, variation bonds will provide the capacity and flexibility to increase the project at a later date if further public sector funds subsequently become available.

David Metzger commented: “This is our third major hospital deal to have reached financial close in the least year (after MAS Central Nottingham and Barts and the Royal London). As with all such schemes it has had to solve its share of unique and challenging issues and we are particularly delighted to be involved in a project which will deliver significant improvement in the social infrastructure and healthcare facilities of the North West.”

The team was led by partners David Metzger (Real Estate), Kate Alliott and David Bickerton (Capital Markets) and Robert Davies (Tax, Pensions and Employment). Other members of the team included Claudine Bushell, Nadia Al-Aidarous, Clare Boden, Jenny McIvor, Laura Porch, Ben Houston, Shaun Gallagher, Ruby Giblin and Pooja Sinha.

NewHospitals were advised by a Lovells team led by Jason Radford, while the Trust were advised by Addleshaw Goddard, with Mike O’Connor heading up the team there.

For further information about this press release contact David Metzger on +44 (0) 207 006 4240, Kate Alliott on +44 (0) 207 006 2178 or Claudine Bushell on +44 (0) 207 006 4126.

A cross-practice team at Clifford Chance has acted for senior funders FSA and EIB, and lead managers Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Barclays Capital, in the recently closed £380m St Helens and Knowsley Hospitals PFI in north west England. The deal has been financed with £178.3m index-linked guaranteed secured bonds (which includes £25.3m in variation bonds) and £149.2m index-linked EIB secured debt. Both bonds and EIB debt are wrapped by monoline insurer FSA. The bonds were priced on 1 June 2006 with financial close occurring on 7 June 2006.

FSA and EIB are supporting the NewHospitals consortium, which comprises Taylor Woodrow and Innisfree. The consortium are providing approximately £30m in equity, while an additional £64m of the project will be financed using capital payments from the St Helens and Knowsley Hospital Services NHS Trust.

The funds will finance two new hospitals on sites at St Helens and Whiston in Merseyside, for a concession term of just over 41 years. When complete, the hospitals will provide a total of 747 beds – 651 at Whiston and 96 at St Helens – with construction scheduled to be completed by September 2008 at the St Helens site and by June 2011 at Whiston.

As with the Barts Hospital and Royal London project, variation bonds will provide the capacity and flexibility to increase the project at a later date if further public sector funds subsequently become available.

David Metzger commented: “This is our third major hospital deal to have reached financial close in the least year (after MAS Central Nottingham and Barts and the Royal London). As with all such schemes it has had to solve its share of unique and challenging issues and we are particularly delighted to be involved in a project which will deliver significant improvement in the social infrastructure and healthcare facilities of the North West.”

The team was led by partners David Metzger (Real Estate), Kate Alliott and David Bickerton (Capital Markets) and Robert Davies (Tax, Pensions and Employment). Other members of the team included Claudine Bushell, Nadia Al-Aidarous, Clare Boden, Jenny McIvor, Laura Porch, Ben Houston, Shaun Gallagher, Ruby Giblin and Pooja Sinha.

NewHospitals were advised by a Lovells team led by Jason Radford, while the Trust were advised by Addleshaw Goddard, with Mike O’Connor heading up the team there.

For further information about this press release contact David Metzger on +44 (0) 207 006 4240, Kate Alliott on +44 (0) 207 006 2178 or Claudine Bushell on +44 (0) 207 006 4126.

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