CDP requires that all significant commercial issues are finalised pre Final Tender. Therefore, in order to ensure that potential funders are able to return robust and deliverable bids, the Authority should seek to have finalised as many of the key commercial terms of the project as possible before selecting the PB and commencing the running of the PBDFC. This should include completion of as much of the Project Agreement drafting as is feasible. Key terms of other significant project documentation including any subcontracting arrangements should also have been agreed before selection of the PB.
Notwithstanding this, consideration must be given to the overall timetable to financial close that will have been agreed between the Authority and the PB. Where possible, the PBDFC process should be integrated into this project timetable without causing any undue delay to the anticipated financial close date. In this regard an Authority and its advisors should consider what elements of the information could be collated or produced prior to, or in parallel with, the announcement of PB such that a delay is not otherwise caused by the sequential timing of the PBDFC process.