Bidders in queue for hospital PFI

Bidders are eyeing a one-third stake in one of the country’s most infamous private finance initiative deals, the University College Hospital off Tottenham Court Road, the Evening Standard understands.

Sources say Barclays Infrastructure Funds and two listed vehicles, HICL and the John Laing Infrastructure Fund, are all mulling bids ranging between £60 million and £80 millon.

But they could face stiff opposition from support services group Interserve and Semperian PPP Investment Partners, which own the remaining two-thirds of the project. They are believed to have pre-emption rights and are thought to be considering a deal where they would end up with a 50-50 shareholding of UCH.

The current owner of the stake, construction group Balfour Beatty, formally put it up for sale yesterday when adviser KPMG sent out an information memorandum on the business.

The group might use the money for small acquisitions

Although the public sector’s use of the PFI has long been controversial — with critics considering it poor value for money and a form of privatisation by stealth — the UCH scheme was particularly notorious. Costs soared from £120 million to £430 million and involved the redevelopment of a historic hospital built in 1834.