Financing signed for first Polish health PPP

The EBRD is among organisations to have signed loan agreements relating to the landmark Zywiec Poviat integrated healthcare project.

Polish banks FM Bank PBP and Alior Bank, together with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), have signed loan agreements for the design, construction, equipping, operation and transfer of the Zywiec Poviat Hospital public-private partnership (PPP).

The hospital is the first PPP healthcare facility in Poland and is structured as an integrated healthcare project, including both facilities and clinical operations.

With the loan agreements signed, financial close is expected soon with construction to begin thereafter – although certain preparatory works may start sooner. The new Zywiec Poviat Hospital is expected to begin admitting patients between late 2017 and early 2018.

Located at Pola Lisickie in Zywiec, a town in south-central Poland, the hospital will be operated and managed by InterHealth Canada, a Canadian healthcare provider, until 2045.

The new hospital, which will replace an existing one, will provide general acute care services, ambulatory care, prophylactic medicine, elective procedures and cutting-edge diagnostics.

It will comprise a four-storey building with usable space of 18,000 square metres and built-in expansion capacity, fully integrated wards, an emergency department with a helicopter landing as well as an increased number of outpatient clinics. Total capacity will be 340 acute care inpatient beds and 40 long-term care beds.

The project already has a building permit in place, with InterHealth Canada having selected the Polish subsidiary of Aldesa Construcciones, a Spanish contractor and concession developer, as its preferred contractor.

Legal advisers to the PPP included Wolf Theiss, Squire Patton Boggs, DLA Piper Wiater, CDZ Law, SDZ Legal and CMS Cameron McKenna. Financial advisers included PwC, Upper Finance and Deloitte; while BDO and Deloitte provided tax advice.