To ask the Scottish Executive whether the refinancing of the Hairmyres Hospital PFI project resulted in any change in risk allocation and termination liabilities and, if so, how the additional risks have been priced.
The refinancing of Hairmyres Hospital inAugust 2004 provided an opportunity for both Prospect and NHS Lanarkshire towork in partnership and capture the considerable benefits from the reducedrisks inherent in the project following the successful completion ofconstruction and the experience gained of operating the hospital.
There are three distinctcategories of termination. These are client default/voluntary termination, forcemajeure; and contractor default.
Under each of these, thereare defined liabilities that the board is contracted to pay in the event theConcession Agreement terminates. The contractual definition of theseliabilities did not change post refinancing. The first of these is consideredto be within NHS Lanarkshire’s control. The second is essentially outwitheither NHS Lanarkshire’s or the contractor’s control. Based on Prospect’s (thecontractor), and their bankers’ commitment to the project and the due diligenceundertaken by the bankers in agreeing the refinancing, the probability ofdefault by the contractor was considered to be low.
The potential terminationliabilities under these scenarios were subjected to a detailed value for moneyanalysis and scenario modelling which focused on the trade off between a potentialincrease in liabilities and NHS Lanarkshire’s share of refinancing gain. Thisanalysis suggested that there needs to be a high probability of contractordefault before the VFM was eroded. Whilst there were some consequential changesto the termination sums under contractor default, the termination sum payableunder such a default scenario is expected to be lower than had the refinancingnot taken place.
The refinancing agreementincreased the amount of borrowing by £20.4 million and the total debt is repaidover a longer time period. However, the actual sum paid at termination would bedetermined by the actual date of termination.
he refinancing providedsubstantial financial gain for NHS Lanarkshire and was undertaken in line withthe Code of Conduct issued by the Office of Government Commerce in July 2002. PartnershipsUK (PUK) Refinancing Task Force confirmed the business case complied with theterms of the code.