A consortium led by Leighton contractors has been awarded the AUD 1.1 billion contract for design, build and maintenance for seven schools on Queensland, Australia.
This is regarded by many as a success for the supported debt model and proves that the big PPP banks the Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank have become comfortable with the supported debt model which was widely discussed in the bid phase of this PPP project (I even wrote an article for Project Finance International (”PFI”) on the topic.
Project Finance Execution at the Commonwealth Bank
It is very satisfying to the Commonwealth Bank win this process as I used to work in their Project Finance Execution team. The team has really improved their modelling standards in the last few years after appointing Joseph Lau (who was previously with Mercers model audits) as responsible for financial modelling methodology and quality.
No doubt a background in financial model audits help when performing peer reviews on internal bids prior to bids (or even prior to external independent model audits). I am surprised that not more banks have taken this approach of developing a ‘centre-of-excellence’ for financial modelling.
Additional info on the PPP transaction
- Leighton wins AU$ 1.1 billion schools PPP project
- Shortlisted proponents after the Expression of Interest
Congratulations Leightons and the CBA! (and NAB of course, I just don’t know them as well…)
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