Ashurst has advised the Education Funding Agency (EFA), an executive agency of the Department for Education (DfE), on the £99.5 million financing of the North East Batch of the U.K. Government's Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP), which reached financial close on 10 March 2015.

The successful bidder's consortium company, GT NEPS Ltd., is owned by Galliford Try Investments NEPS Ltd. (45%), Infrastructure Investments Holdings Ltd. (45%), and IUK Investments Ltd., an investment unit of Her Majesty's Treasury (10%). It has entered into an availability-based project agreement with the Secretary of State for Education to design, construct, and operate six secondary schools and six primary schools in the northeast of England.

The project is financed by an on-loan agreement with an aggregator finance vehicle and a combination of subordinated debt and equity from shareholders with senior debt provided to the finance aggregator vehicle by Aviva Annuity UK Ltd., International Public Partnerships Ltd. (INPP), and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The Ashurst team was led by partners Philip Vernon and Patrick Boyle, with support from counsels Jonathan Hoare and Jane Staveley, senior associates Karen Braakman, Claire Edwards, David Hartley and Gaby Jones, and associates Liudmila D'Cruz, Will Glover and Yolanda Yong, assisted by Emily Yamahiro.

Commenting on the deal, Philip Vernon said:

"We are delighted to be part of this exciting and innovative programme and have greatly enjoyed working with the EFA to secure the funding necessary for the development of these 12 schools in the northeast of England. This project closing is an important milestone, both as the first closing under the aggregator finance structure and the first closing under the Government's PF2 initiative."