News Archive
Balfour Beatty's Gammon wins first Singapore PPP
Released on 12/08/2008
The team of Balfour Beatty and Gammon Capital has won its first ‘PPP’ deal in Singapore for a technical college. The companies hope this will lead to more such deals in Vietnam and Malaysia.
Balfour Beatty, the international engineering, construction, services and investment group, said today that Gammon Capital, its PPP vehicle in South East Asia, has reached financial close on its first PPP project in Singapore.
PPP stands for ‘public private partnership’ and generally means private finance and expertise is used to design and build a facility and also manage it on behalf of a government for a concessionary period.
In this case Gammon Capital, 50% owned by Balfour Beatty, won the contract to design, build and maintain the new Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College West Campus in Singapore. The actual construction will be carried out by Hong Kong-based Gammon Construction, also 50% owned by Balfour Beatty. (Jardine Matheson Group owns the remainder of both Gammon companies.)
The contract period is 27 years and has a capital value of approximately US$190 million. The facility is scheduled to be finished in time for the first intake of students in July 2010.
The college provides pre-employment training to secondary school leavers and continuing education to working adults. The new West Campus will offer courses in hospitality, retail and automotive engineering. It will house 7200 full-time and 8100 part-time students, and around 630 staff.
Gammon Capital Director Ed Doherty said they wooed ITE procurers with a package of extra educational benefits to students.
“An important part of our value proposition was the Technology Transfer and Employment Training (TTET) initiative that we developed, which will involve our Jardine sister companies in Singapore in relevant sectors, including hospitality, retail and automotive engineering, in delivering a package of free industry seminars and employment placements that support ITE’s objective of providing real work experience and a high degree of industry relevance,” he said.
Chairman of Gammon Capital Mark Greenberg called the win “an important step in our strategy of creating sustainable PPP businesses in the region” and said it was generating interest from Malaysia and Vietnam.
Gammon Capital will be responsible for facilities management including mechanical and electrical maintenance, audio-visual equipment support, cleaning, landscape management, security, parking, environment and waste management and catering. Its FM partner will be United Premas, a subsidiary of United Group Services.
Gammon Capital was formed in 2005 to pursue PPP projects in Asia, with an initial focus on Singapore, where it is based. Gammon Construction is a major Hong Kong contractor with a substantial presence in Singapore. It has an annual revenue of approximately US$1000 million and employs over 2000 full-time staff.
