Overview
Freehills is at the forefront of public private partnership developments in Australia, both in establishing government policy frameworks, understanding legal and industry developments and in project evaluation and delivery.
Our advice is not limited to specific projects, having been appointed by both national and international government departments to provide training services in connection with the implementation of public private partnership policies, the development and delivery of public private partnership projects and technical guidance on public private partnership material.
This means that we can offer our clients a one-stop legal service for all facets of public private partnership projects with access to a truly multidisciplinary team of advisers, both in Australia and offshore.
Our team comprises partners and senior lawyers, all with extensive Australian and international infrastructure and public private partnership project experience. We advise on projects across all the sectors including:
- social infrastructure (including health, education, correctional and courts, science, defence, housing and industrial projects)
- transport
- water and waste management, and
- sporting and entertainment infrastructure.
By drawing on the national capability of our team, we are able to provide clients with a dedicated and experienced team of legal advisers with a truly multidisciplinary approach.
This includes:
- management of complex tender processes
- project and contract structuring
- project delivery
- risk analysis and management
- preparation of project documentation and contract negotiation
- transaction and project due diligence
- planning, environment and native title advice
- construction
- facilities management
- industrial relations and employment
- project financing
- equity investment
- dispute resolution and litigation advice when required.
Experience
Examples of our recent experience include:
Social infrastructure
- Southbank Education and Training Precinct – Adviser to the Queensland Government on this project, the first public private partnership project in Queensland, involving the redevelopment of a range of education facilities in Brisbane.
- Royal Children's Hospital redevelopment – Freehills acted for Financial Guaranty Insurance Company (FGIC) (bond guarantors) in respect of the credit-wrapped bond financing of the A$850 million Royal Children’s Hospital Redevelopment Project, a public private partnership to finance, design, construct, operate and maintain the new Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. The project is the largest hospital redevelopment undertaken by the State Government of Victoria, and involves the construction of a new facility on a site adjacent to the existing site, with the retention of two existing buildings; the research centre currently being built and the front entry building. Freehills also had two other separate teams involved in the project, acting for Goldman Sachs as bond issuer and BovisLend Lease as construction contractor.
- Defence Headquarters Joint Operation Command – We acted for a consortium, which included Leighton Contractors, ABN AMRO and Spotless, to successfully bid for the right to design, build, finance and provide facilities management services for the Defence Headquarters Joint Operation Command Project on the New South Wales / Australian Capital Territory border, a Commonwealth Department of Defence public private partnership.
Transport
- New South Wales RailCorp Rolling Stock – Advising a bidding consortium in relation to this public private partnership project for the provision of rolling stock under the New South Wales public private partnership framework.
- Queensland Rail – We acted for Queensland Rail as a member of the joint venture to develop the A$1 billion Surat Basin Railway and associated network upgrades, including drafting the joint venture agreement and advising on the conditional exclusive mandate under the Queensland public private partnership guidelines issued to the joint venture for the project.
Water and waste management
- Grampians Water project, Victoria – Adviser to the successful bidder, AquaTower consortium, on BOOT bid to build four dissolved air flotation and microfiltration water treatment plants at Halls Gap, Ararat, Great Western and Promenal in Victoria.
- Singapore Waste Incineration Plant – Adviser to the Department of Environment in Singapore in relation to the design, construction, ownership and operating by form of public private partnership for the fifth waste incineration project in Singapore, and the first to be delivered on a public private partnership basis.
- Ulu Pandan NEWater Project, Singapore – Adviser to the Public Utilities Board of Singapore in relation to the design, build, own and operate public private partnership for this fourth NEWater plant.
Sporting and entertainment
- Darwin Convention Centre or Darwin City Waterfront (DCW) Project – Freehills acted for ABN AMRO on the debt and sponsor involvement on the Northern Territory Government's first public private partnership (under their public private partnership guidelines). The public elements of this project involve a public private partnership of a Convention Centre and construction of the Darwin Cove Waterfront precinct which includes parks, public space, swimming pools and boardwalk.
- Stadium Australia, Sydney – Adviser to the developer of the A$700 million BOOT scheme for Stadium Australia at Sydney Olympic Park, the centre piece of the infrastructure for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
- Melbourne Convention Centre Project – We acted for Financial Security Assurance Inc. in its capacity as the monoline insurer for the debt and bond financing of the Melbourne Convention Centre Project. This was the first time that a credit wrapped debt solution has been utilised in a social infrastructure public private partnership and to take true construction risk in an Australian public private partnership.
Working with you
The mounting pressure on governments around Australia to deliver improved services to taxpayers means that they are increasingly looking towards the role that the private sector can play in delivering important public infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, road and rail links.
Successful projects in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria have shown that value for money can be achieved through public private partnership projects when they are well defined from the outset through the carrying out of robust business case assessments. It is critical for governments to ensure that the project structure and contractual arrangements which underpin any public private partnership project presented to the market protect government’s interests, are attractive to investors and offer legal clarity with respect to the obligations and risks borne by each party.
Freehills offers clients involved in public private partnership projects a track record of providing innovative and commercially astute advice across a range of industries and issues.
