7 May 2003

Contract Signed in Record Time for an MoD Accommodation Project

Interserve and its consortium partner TQ Education and Training Ltd have been awarded the £250 million Defence Sixth Form College private finance initiative (PFI) contract by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The consortium was named preferred bidder at the end of January and it has taken just three months to reach financial closure, the fastest ever achieved for an MoD accommodation project.

Interserve Project Services will design and build the college, which is scheduled to open in September 2005. Interservefm and TQ Education and Training will then provide a full range of facilities management and educational services over a 28-year period. The value to Interserve of the project and facilities services is approximately £90 million.

The Defence Sixth Form College, located near Loughborough, Leicestershire,  will have a capacity of about 340 MoD selected students. It will be a principal source of Technical Officer recruitment to all the UK armed forces and the MoD civil service, delivering around 165 young men and women educated to A level standard each year.

"We share the MoD's goal of creating a centre of excellence," remarked Adrian Ringrose, Interserve's Deputy Chief Executive. "The contract really plays to our strengths, as we can ensure that the design goes hand-in-hand with operation and we'll be working with an excellent partner to deliver the educational services, including IT and other 'back-office' functions."

The consortium, Minerva Education & Training Ltd, comprises Interserve PFI Holdings Limited, TQ Group Limited and HSBC Infrastructure Fund Management Limited. Interserve's PFI Investments division will manage Interserve's equity stake in the project.