International Public Partnerships ups stake in ten Balfour Beatty interests

International Public Partnerships upped its stake in ten Building Schools for the Future interests from Balfour Beatty for £72.3m.

The private finance specialist excercised existing preemption rights acquired as part of its purchase of Building Schools for the Future Investments in 2011.

It increased its stake in seven of the Balfour interests from 10% to 90% and to between 80% and 99% in the remaining three BSF schemes which were previously under Balfour Beatty's ownership.

All the projects met International Public Partnerships investment criteria, in terms of their operations lives, funding structure and risk.

The underlying projects would add to the company's portfolio returns immediately.

Funding for the acquisition came from its recent capital raise of £125m, with the balance of £26.6m now remaining earmarked entirely for investments, including the Tideway project.

As regards its £300m revolving corporate debt facility, the company said that roughly £141.6m had been drawn in support of its investment commitments, including Tideway.