Two reports in Barnet Press on sale of PPP shares

Two articles in The Press, Barnet (13 January and 27 January 2011) on the potential effects of the sale of equity in PPP companies, focusing on Barnet General Hospital which featured in the ESSU Research Report – £10bn Sale of Shares in PPP Companies.

 

Guardian Public article on ESSU report on PPP equity profits

‘A Very Private Partnership’ in The Guardian Public section, Monday 17 January, has detailed coverage of the sale of shares in PPP companies by Jo Adetunji. It had a revealing response from HSBC Infrastructure. However, it is no longer available on The Guardian website.

The £10bn Sale of Shares in PPP Companies: New source of profits for builders and banks, Dexter Whitfield

A new ESSU Research Report reveals 240 PPP equity transactions involved 1,229 PPP projects (including multiple sales) valued at £10.0bn in the last decade. Average profit was 50.6% in individual and group equity transactions. £517.9m profit from a sample of 154 PPP projects. If the same level of profit were maintained for the 622 individual and group PPP project equity transactions the total profit would be £2.2bn. (This excludes the undisclosed profits obtained in the sale of secondary market infrastructure funds). Increased use of tax havens for UK infrastructure funds – 91 PPP projects with 50% – 100% equity ownership with funds registered in tax havens. A hard copy of the report is published by Spokesman Books ISBN 978-0-85124-791-5, price £8.95.

Dexter Whitfield said “The level of profiteering from PPP equity transactions makes a nonsense of the original value for money assessments – if these profits had been taken into account at the evaluation stage then few PPP projects would have been approved. PPP projects are little more than money-making mechanisms for builders and banks.”