Because PPPs involve both technical and financial matters, bidding groups almost always consist of consortia of contractors / operators and funders. On large PPPs this can involve 5 to 10 partners with different profiles, sizes and priorities. Groups have often to be formed when projects are still at an early conceptual stage, in particular regarding financial matters. This entails that PPP bidding groups are often subject to changes during the procurement process. For example, a new equity investor may be brought in when an earlier one decides to drop out of the tender. A funding group may be modified or changed altogether. Changes in bidding group composition seem to be a common issue. 70% of the respondents report that they have faced changes in bidding groups, frequently or occasionally, during their procurements.
It should be noted that the Procurement Directive (Articles 44 to 52) does not provide for a specific set of prequalification criteria which would apply in PPP procurements and would account for the heterogeneous nature of PPP bidding groups, nor does it explicitly define to what extent changes in bidding groups are allowed and, if so, under which conditions.
The majority of respondents indicate that, as far as the laws of their respective jurisdictions are concerned, the composition of a bidding group can be changed but only subject to approval of the relevant contracting authority7. Such approval is generally granted by benchmarking the new group against the prequalification criteria to ensure that the bid remains compliant. Alternatively, contracting authorities may ask the new bidding group to demonstrate that its technical and financial qualifications are at least equivalent to that of the original group.
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7 This is true for 13 out of 16 respondents.