Hochtief wins Scottish campus DBFM project

Subscribe to our newsletter and get the latest news and business opportunities in your inbox
Hochtief wins Scottish campus DBFM project

Ayrshire College has appointed the C3 consortium as the preferred bidder for its new £50 million campus in Kilmarnock. C3 is composed of Hochtief PPP Solutions, Hochtief FM and McLaughlin and Harvey.

The project involves the development of a new college campus in the Kilmarnock town centre on what was previously a Johnny Walker whiskey bottling plant and will provide facilities for over 5,000 students. Work on the campus is expect to commence in early 2014 and construction is forecast to be complete by the end of 2015.

The other two bidders for the project were the following:
  • Amber Graham Education Partnership (comprising Amber Infrastructure Group Holdings Ltd and Graham Construction),
  • Balfour Beatty (comprising Balfour Beatty Capital Ltd, Balfour Beatty Construction Scottish and Southern Ltd, and Balfour Beatty Engineering Services Ltd) and

This is the single largest public sector investment the town has ever seen. Construction work will start early in 2014 and is scheduled to be opened in early 2016.

An university official said:

"This decision means we can move ahead with our plans to create a world-class college campus in the town. It is a major boost for Kilmarnock and for the whole of Ayrshire. Students will have access to a fantastic learning environment, and the local community and businesses across Ayrshire will be able to take advantage of its state of the art facilities.

"The tender process was very competitive and we are confident that C3 will help us achieve our vision of raising aspirations, inspiring achievement and increasing opportunities for the people of Ayrshire. It's wonderful to be able to bring such a significant building project to the centre of Kilmarnock which will transform the physical and learning landscape of the town, as well as creating skilled jobs in the construction industry."

Lynne-Marie Thom from the Scottish Futures Trust, who has been supporting the college through the procurement process, said

"I'm delighted that this milestone has been reached on the third college project in the Non-Profit Distributing programme. We look forward to working closely with the college and its preferred bidder to achieve a great value-for-money deal, aiming for construction to start early next year. This is great news for the Kilmarnock community and will be an enormous boost to local small and medium businesses working within the building sector and related supply chains."

The 25-year DBFM contract is being procured under Scotland's non-profit distributing model which is characterised by capped private sector returns and the absence of dividend bearing equity.

Laurence Howells, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Funding Council said:

"Today's announcement is great news. This is an enormously exciting project for Ayrshire College, Kilmarnock and the region and is the latest development in the Funding Council's wider programme of supporting modern, well-designed and inspiring campuses for learners across Scotland."

List of country news

Country news

  • November 14, 2013

    GIP, MAG and Ferrovial show interest for Aberdeen airport

    Sky News has reported that Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and other investors could be potentially interested in buying Aberdeen airport from Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd. (HAH). GIP currently owns Gatwick, London City and Edinburgh airports. Read more
  • November 18, 2013

    Friends life awards 500m infrastructure mandate to metlife investment management

    Friends Life, the UK-based insurance and pensions provider has announced a new £500 million infrastructure mandate, which the company has awarded to MetLife Investment Management, LLC, the US-based asset management arm of MetLife has approximately US$1.3 billion in infrastructure investments in 10 airports spread across Europe, Australia and the Americas. Infrastructure financing provides MetLife with investment opportunities that match its long-term liabilities.. Read more
  • November 18, 2013

    BBGI announces acquisition of Bilfinger's concessions

    As announced, the engineering and services group Bilfinger Berger has divested its Concessions portfolio. A contract has been signed with Bilfinger Berger Global Infrastructure SICAV S.A. (BBGI), an infrastructure fund listed on the London Stock Exchange, for the takeover of the projects available for sale from Bilfinger. BBGI is planning a capital increase to finance the transaction. Already in the middle of this year, the two parties had agreed on BBGI's acquisition of two additional projects in Canada. The completion of this sale took place also last week. Read more
  • November 19, 2013

    Aberdeen Asset Management acquires Lloyds' investment unit

    Lloyds Banking Group has closed a deal with Aberdeen Asset Management that will see the partly government-owned bank sell Scottish Widows' investment arm for up to £660 million (€787.7 million). Read more
  • November 19, 2013

    USS acquires UK Air traffic control management provider

    Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited (USS), one of the largest pension schemes in the United Kingdom, representing academics and related support staff in the higher education sector, today announced that it will acquire a 49.9% non-controlling stake in The Airline Group Limited. The Airline Group is a 41.9% shareholder in NATS Holdings Limited, the holding company for NATS which is a world leader in the provision of air traffic management.Completion of the transaction remains subject to clearance from the European Commission.The transaction was arranged by USS Investment Management Limited (USSIM), a wholly owned subsidiary of USS and its principal investment manager and advisor, which will manage the investment on USS's behalf. The investment will be managed by USSIM's infrastructure team which substantially reduces the overall cost to USS of investing in infrastructure. As a UK pension fund with a long-term commitment to provide high quality pensions for the higher education sector, USS finds UK infrastructure attractive for its members as it can provide inflation-linked, steady cash flows over a long time horizon, which match USS's long-term liabilities.Mike Powell, Head of Private Markets, USSIM said:"This is another significant investment for the scheme and its members in a high quality infrastructure company. The growth of our infrastructure portfolio by our in house team is a compelling model for the trustee board in meeting its long term commitments to members."NATS is the UK's leading provider of air traffic control services operating since 1962. Last year the company handled 2.1 million flights, carrying some 220 million passengers in the UK, which has some of the most complex airspace in the world. This depth of experience, combined with innovation that has driven significant performance improvements over the past decade has led to NATS providing services to 15 UK airports and in more than 30 countries around the world spanning Europe, the Middle East, Asia and America.Gavin Merchant, Senior Investment Manager, Infrastructure, USSIM said:"NATS is the global leader in air traffic control and is a strong example of where private and public ownership has worked together to build a national asset of strategic importance. NATS is well positioned to maintain its high level of safety performance and to drive operational improvement through innovation. We look forward to working with the existing shareholders and the management team in delivering these objectives."A month ago, Ferrovial reached an agreement to sell 8.65% of FGP Topco Ltd., the holding company which owns Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd. (HAH), to the Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited (USS) for £392 million. Read more

Share this news

Join us

In order to get full access to News section, you must have a full subscription. You can check all the benefits of becoming a member and purchase a subscription on our membership page.