18 April 2013 New Investment - Bendigo Healthcare Accommodation Facility
The New Zealand Social Infrastructure Fund (NZSIF) is pleased to announce that the Public Infrastructure Partners Fund (PIP Fund) in which NZSIF has a 23% interest, has made its third social infrastructure investment.
The PIP Fund has acquired 100% of the Bendigo Healthcare Group Accommodation Facility, based in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, which is being built in close proximity to the new Bendigo Hospital. The counterparty and sponsor is the Bendigo Healthcare Group – a state owned public health provider of the State of Victoria.
The Bendigo Healthcare Group is in the process of procuring and building a new A$600m hospital at Bendigo, and the Accommodation Facility will provide 120 accommodation units for doctors and nurses. Bendigo Health has over 3,000 staff and covers an area a quarter the size of Victoria.
The Accommodation Facility is being built by H Troon Pty. Limited – a local Ballarat based builder, and is expected to be complete and operational in June 2014, at which time income distributions will commence. The project has a 30 year concession with a CPI linked lease structure.
No call from NZSIF shareholders will be made at this time, as the Bendigo investment is in two tranches, one now and the second upon completion. The initial tranche (of approximately 3.5 cents per NZSIF share) is able to be funded from NZSIF’s existing cash resources.
A call on NZSIF shareholders for up to 7 cents per share (cps) is likely around September 2013 for Hobsonville Schools, and a second tranche call in April or May 2014 of up to 4 cps for the Bendigo Health Accommodation Facility. NZSIF shares are currently paid to 30 cps and with these two further investment calls the shares will be paid to approximately 41 cps by April-May 2014.
NZSIF directors are pleased with this third investment, which meets the criteria of the fund. The Bendigo Health Accommodation Facility investment will result in the PIP Fund having 28% of the PIP Fund’s committed capital invested in Australia. With a number of large New Zealand based projects currently under active evaluation, and if successful with some of these, the proportion of New Zealand infrastructure investments made by the PIP Fund is expected to increase significantly over the next 2 years.
Once the Hobsonville School project is fully operational in February 2014 and the Accommodation Facility at Bendigo is finished in June 2014, we expect the PIP distributions, and consequently the NZSIF distributions to increase.
If you have any queries please contact your investment adviser, or Peter Lalor at NZSIF on 07-577 4727.
Kim Ellis
Chairman
New Zealand Social Infrastructure Fund Limited