International Public Partnerships Limited (INPP) has announced that it has acquired an additional interest in the Wolverhampton Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project.

INPP will commit a further £1.536 million (US$1.987 million) to acquire Carillion Private Finance's 8% indirect investment in each of phase I and phase II of the Wolverhampton BSF scheme, growing the company's existing 82% investment in the project to 90%. 

The opportunity to acquire the additional interest in the Project was secured through pre-emption rights that INPP gained as part of its ownership of Building Schools for the Future Investments LLP (BSFI). INPP acquired BSFI from the Department of Education and Partnerships UK in August 2011. BSFI was an investment delivery vehicle designed to refurbish secondary schools across the country. 

The project comprises three secondary schools, being Heath Park Academy in the Fallings Park area, St Matthias School in the Wardle area and Highfields Science Specialist School in the Penn area of Wolverhampton. 

Like the other BSF projects in which INPP invests, the current investment meets INPP's investment criteria: 

• The investment debt is non-recourse at the project level and matched to the life of the project;
• The project has a long operational life with the 25 year phase II concession due to expire on the 31 August 2040;
• The investment conforms to the typical UK BSF PFI project funding structure with a well-established and standard form risk framework;
• The project is operational and yielding and will contribute to INPP's portfolio return immediately upon acquisition.

The investment has been completed at a projected return that INPP regards as attractive compared to current market conditions and will be funded through existing cash balances.

Amber Infrastructure Group is the Investment Adviser to INPP.