Building Scotland's future

Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route NPD Project
This £530m project was procured by Aberdeen City Council, involving the construction of approximately 58 kilometres of mainly new-build highway to form a by-pass for the City of Aberdeen. We acted for a consortium of international and major UK construction companies, bidding to be appointed as contractor for the project works and who were also proposed investors in project co. 

The team advised the consortia throughout the competitive dialogue period, including providing advice in relation to and full input on the draft project agreement. We also provided advice on key risk areas such as the identity of the procuring authority, route of the project road, significant new structures, management of utilities companies and ground conditions risk.  We developed particular knowledge of security package requirements for bond-financed projects.

Caledonian Sleeper Franchise
We acted for Arriva Trains in relation to its bid for the franchise to run this circa £375m project procured by Transport Scotland. Our role covered advising on the franchise documentation, documentation for the capital funding, property, employment and construction. We also provided advice in relation to public procurement, state aid, and competition law and merger control aspects of the project.

Inverness College New Campus NPD project
This £50m project involved the development of a new campus for Inverness College/the University of the Highlands and Islands across two sites in the North of Scotland.  We acted as lead advisers to Project Co and the sponsors in relation to all of the project and finance documentation.  This scheme utilised Aviva capital or lease-based project finance and established a number of market precedents that are now being followed in the other projects.

Alford Community Campus – Hub North Scotland 
We advised on the £30m project involved the procurement of new community campus in Alford including a nursery, primary and secondary education facilities for almost 1000 pupils, with integrated community facilities including a library, swimming pool, indoor and outdoor sports and parking by Aberdeenshire Council pursuant to the North hub Territory framework. 

This was the first school DBFM project to reach financial close under hub North Scotland’s Scotland's Schools for the Future project - a £1.25 billion programme delivered by the Scottish Futures Trust. The project saw a significant public sector capital investment, reducing the amount of private sector borrowing and rent paid by the public purse. This model had to meet stringent EU regulations and our team was instrumental in drafting the required structure.

Forres Woodside & Tain Health Centres
This was a DBFM Project completed under the Scottish Government’s hub Initiative.  We acted as lead legal adviser to the Project Company (sub-hubco) and the sponsors of the project in relation to all of the project and finance documentation.  This was the first time that two public sector bodies jointly entered into a single project agreement for new facilities under the hub Initiative.  Our team was instrumental in devising a simple and straightforward solution to overcome the vires issues that might otherwise have prevented the project being procured in this way without the requirement for legislation.  The Project is also notable as being the first Scottish revenue funded (i.e. PPP) project to close utilising Aviva’s capital or lease-based project finance solution.

Aberdeen Schools NPD Project
The team acted on this project first as advisers to the original senior lenders through the initial procurement to financial close. Throughout our involvement on this project we advised on an extensive list of unforeseen issues, including:

• Insolvency of the original service provider and procurement of the replacement service provider
• Disputes between a number of parties
• The effects of the insolvency of the construction contractor
• Major refinancing of the project
• Changes to the facilities

Dealing with these issues has given the team market leading experience of the impact of such issues to allow us to advise on the best way to ensure projects can survive.

University of Hertfordshire Student Accomodation project
We acted for Derwent Housing Association which was the facilities management contractor for and investor in the ULiving@Hertfordshire plc which provided new student accommodation for the Hatfield campus for the University of Hertfordshire.  This market leading project closed utilising a private placement bond and was one of the first of its kind in Europe.  The scheme provided 3000 new student accommodation spaces for the University.