Fundraising

BBGI to buy two Northern Irish PPPs

The deal is part of a handful of acquisitions sealed this year by the London-listed vehicle with an eye on further international expansion.

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UK-based Bilfinger Berger Global Infrastructure (BBGI), the listed vehicle of German developer Bilfinger Berger, has agreed to buy 100 percent of the equity and subordinated debt of two educational public-private partnership (PPP) projects in Northern Ireland.

Belfast Metropolitan College is a campus comprising two five-storey teaching facilities and a two-storey engineering building with associated car parking and a landscaped courtyard.

North West Regional College, located in Londonderry, is a four-storey teaching facility providing information, communications and education technology for 1,100 students in the fields of business, computing, tourism and hospitality.

Both projects, already operational, have concessions running until August 2027 and January 2026 respectively. BBGI will receive availability payments during the concession period from their respective governing bodies.

The company is acquiring the projects from UK developer John Graham Holdings for £11.7 million (€16.6 million; $18.2 million), funded from its existing cash resources and drawings from the credit facility.

“Both of these well managed concessions have successful track records of performance and this opportunistic acquisition was made on accretive terms and was concluded without engaging in an auction process,” said Frank Schramm, co-chief executive of BBGI, in a statement.

The transaction, which remains subject to obtaining necessary consents under the projects documents, marks the third deal announced by BBGI in less than two months.

In June, BBGI signed and completed an agreement to acquire an additional 30 percent stake in the UK’s Avon & Somerset Police HQ PPP Project, an asset in which it previously owned 34.93 percent.

A week prior, the company had agreed to buy 50 percent of Australia’s Northern Territory Secure Facilities PPP Project. Funded from BBGI’s credit facility and completed in early July, the transaction brought BBGI’s ownership of the project to 100 percent. 

Photo by William Murphy