OHL successfully closes the Financing for the Centre Hospitalier de L’Université de Montréal (CHUM)

The consortium, known as “Collectif Santé Montreal”, is comprised of OHL (25%), the British investment fund Innisfree (30%), the British construction firm Laing O’Rourke (25%) and the French services firm Dalkia (20%). The members recently signed the contract and successfully closed the financing of the concession agreement to design, build, finance and maintain the new Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), in the province of Quebec, Canada.

Construction will be performed by a joint venture between OHL, with 50%, and Laing O’Rourke. The approximate budget is about Can$2.0 billion (about €1.428 billion). At the end of the first phase, scheduled for 2016, the new hospital will be able to provide full medical services, and construction will be fully completed in 2019.

The net present value of the payments for the administration of the financial offer of the consortium closed below Can$1.97 billion (about €1.408 billion), slightly below the limit set by the provincial government of Quebec.

The duration of the concession agreement is 38.8 years starting with the signing of the contract this past June 10th.

The financing for the project included a Can$1.37 billion bond issue (about €978 million). This is considered a flagship operation in the Canadian market as it is the first concession project to ever achieve more than Can$1.0 billion in long-term financing on signing the contract. The placement of the bonds was handled by the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

The future hospital, newly built, with a total area of 332,652 square meters is located on the heart of downtown Montreal. The hospital will be built on the current St-Luc Hospital site.

The project consists of five buildings: the main one, which includes 772 single rooms, operating rooms, emergency department, sterilization center, radiology, radiotherapy and other functions, the outpatient building, which includes outpatient clinics and the power plant, the office building, the logistical support building, which also includes the central pharmacy and laboratories, and the auditorium, all surrounded by a public space and with underground parking.

All buildings will be connected to each other at different levels or through tunnels. Construction of the new hospital will be completed in two phases, during which the St-Luc Hospital will continue in operation.

OHL, with the construction of more than six million square meters of hospitals worldwide, is a national and international leader in this industry. With this project, the Group exports its experience in the construction of hospitals and the structuring of infrastructure concession financing to a new market, Canada.

OHL International Construction in 2010 was the leading division of the OHL Group in sales and second in EBITDA, accounting for 37.3% and 14.9%, respectively, of the Group totals. This excellent performance was possible thanks to the positive performance in the U.S., Central and Eastern Europe and Qatar.

The business development efforts of this division in various countries were rewarded in 2010 with its first award of works contracts in important markets like the New York State, Colombia, Poland, Romania, and in early 2011, Canada and Kuwait.