BBGI buys stake in Canadian hospital – BBGI Global Infrastructure SA has entered into an agreement to acquire a 25% interest in Center Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), in Montreal, Québec, Canada.
The public-private partnership project originally consisted of the design, construction, finance, operation, and maintenance of a fully functional new hospital facility including new buildings, parking and commercial retail areas together with supporting infrastructure for the Province of Québec. The hospital has 772 private patient rooms, 39 operating theatres and 415 examination rooms. The project achieved substantial completion of phase 1 in 2017 and phase 2 in 2021. The concession runs until 2050.
Availability payments are received from Center Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, a public not for profit corporation duly formed to deliver health services and care and social services for and funded by the Province of Québec. Both the CHUM and the Province of Québec are rated AA-/Aa2 by S&P and Moody’s, respectively.
The new state of the art facility caters to over 1.7m people in the region and it is one of the largest healthcare centres in North America.
The interest is being acquired from entities owned by Obrascón Huarte Lain, S.A. (OHL). The completion of this acquisition is subject to certain conditions which are customary for this type of transaction including consent from the public sector client, lenders and other approvals.
The purchase price for the investments is approximately CAD 88m and is subject to certain adjustments. The consideration for the acquisition of the 25% interest is being funded from drawing upon the company’s £230m corporate revolving credit facility and existing cash resources.
Following the completion of this acquisition, BBGI will own a globally diversified portfolio of 55 infrastructure investments in the schools, healthcare, blue light (i.e. fire and police stations), affordable housing, justice facilities and transport sectors which are geographically located in Australia, Canada, Continental Europe, the UK and the US. The company seeks to limit and reduce investment risk where possible, with the current portfolio benefitting from 100% availability-based assets of which over 99% are operational. The company also maintains a diversified supply chain in regard to facilities management and operational and maintenance (“O&M”) contractors.