Adrian Ewer, chief executive of PPP specialist John Laing, has said it has had difficulty raising equity for its investments during the downturn
The firm, which operates in the PPP markets in education, social housing, health and rail made a pre-tax profit of 拢18.3m over the 12 months to 31 December 2009, compared with a figure of 拢43.6m last year. The value of its PPP portfolio on 31 December 2009 was 拢653m, down 6% on the figure of 拢698m in 2008.
In the annual report of the PPP specialist, Ewer said: 鈥淧rior to the financial crisis, it was a reasonable assumption to make that the company would be able to attract increasing amounts of equity funding. This would have been applied to develop and hold infrastructure assets to their full maturity, either on the company鈥檚 balance sheet or through managed funds. The raising of additional equity has proved difficult, but the directors have determined that the company should continue to press for growth in the portfolio of projects under development.鈥�
The company, which is owned by the private equity arm of fund manager Henderson, raised 拢120m in 2009 to fund this growth through the sale of its interests in PPP assets. This resulted in a 拢15.7m hit to the balance sheet because values were below their peak.
Laing left the contracting market in 2001 when it sold its construction business to O鈥橰ourke.
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