Consortium wins Fermanagh hospital deal

A CONSORTIUM including builder P Elliott and AIB has won a €380 million-plus contract to build a new hospital in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh.

The partnership, led by British building and maintenance group Interserve, has won a public-private partnership deal from the local health authority and the Western Health and Social Care Trust to build and maintain the 315-bed hospital.

The contract is worth more than £300 million (€382 million).

The parties said yesterday that the contract would be finalised in the first half of next year. P Elliott and Spanish construction group FCC will build the hospital, which is expected to be completed in 2012. AIB is providing the project finance.

Interserve said yesterday that it would invest £7.8 million (€9.9 million) in the project, which represents one-third of the equity and debt. It will provide facilities management and maintenance services to the hospital over a 30-year period. This element of the deal is worth £75 million (€95 million).

The 70,000sq m hospital will be located at Wolf Lough to the north of Enniskillen. Interserve said yesterday that it will be one of the most modern of its kind. Interserve is a London-listed multinational group that specialises in design, construction and maintenance services. It has revenues of €1.7 billion and 50,000 workers.

The company has a long-standing involvement in the North and is currently working on three public-private schools contracts.

Cavan-based P Elliott is one of Ireland's top 10 construction groups and is involved in a number of large-scale commercial and housing projects. The group recently published figures showing that turnover fell 2.6 per cent last year to to €298.7 million from €306.5 million in 2006.

The company made profits after tax of €12.9 million in 2007 and benefited by €5.7 million from property revaluations, bring its gain for the year to €18.6 million.

Its other projects include a large mixed apartment and housing complex in Stepaside, Co Dublin, and the redevelopment of the old Irish Times building on D'Olier Street, Dublin.

The Interserve-Elliott consortium was named as the preferred bidder for the Enniskillen hospital deal earlier this month.

Interserve chief executive, Adrian Ringrose, said the project would be its fifth public-private health service deal.