Freeths advise International Public Partnerships on the £14.3m acquisition of Lewisham BSF project

Leading national law firm Freeths LLP has advised listed infrastructure fund International Public Partnerships on another acquisition within its Building Schools for the Future (BSF) portfolio.

International Public Partnerships Limited (INPP) has acquired an additional 40% investment in the Lewisham BSF project from Babcock Project Investments, increasing its overall investment to between 40% and 50% in the underlying BSF assets.

The Lewisham project comprises a number of BSF schools located in the South East London borough, including Sedgehill and Conisborough Schools; Trinity School; Deptford Green School; and, Bonus Pastor, Pendergast and Drum Beat Schools.

The Freeths team was lead by project finance and infrastructure partner James Larmour. This is the fifth such BSF transaction which Freeths has closed for INPP over the past 18 months – an aggregate value of over £45m.

Babcock Project Investments was advised by Pinsent Masons.

Commenting today, James said:

“We were very pleased to be able to support INPP on another secondary market transaction. This is a further example of the high quality mandates we are able to secure and deliver upon in the PPP/PFI sector and a sound endorsement of our capabilities and expertise. We have developed a strong track record of delivering secondary market transactions quickly and efficiently.”

Speaking on behalf of Amber Infrastructure, fund manager for INPP, Paul Andrews said:

“James and his team at Freeths were instrumental in ensuring that the transaction process proceeded as smoothly as possible and we continue to be impressed with the high quality cost effective service offered by James and his team.”

Freeths’ national infrastructure, projects, energy and natural resources team consists of 5 partners and over 10 lawyers working across the firm’s 11 offices. The firm’s expertise in projects and infrastructure was recently recognised by the Legal 500 Awards 2014, which named Freeths as the Projects, Energy and Natural Resources regional firm of the year.