CONCLUSIONS

There is unlikely to be another sale quite like that of the Millennium Dome. However there are several generic lessons which could apply to the sale of large and complex real estate assets:

1  Involvement of many stakeholders with different aims and interests greatly increases the risk of project failure. The chances of success are greater where a single organisation is given responsibility and authority to transact the deal.

2  If vendor departments decide to alter the terms of their offer to the private sector they should explicitly advise all potential bidders unless there are powerful and verifiable reasons to the contrary. This is as important before short listing of bidders as in later stages of sale processes.

3  Where public-private deals address a mix of tangible and intangible objectives, departments should communicate to bidders, at least by the time of the invitation to tender, how they will evaluate trade-offs between objectives.

4  Public bodies undertaking privatisations or sales have sometimes been unable to supply bidders with adequate records of assets and liabilities; a difficulty in this case at the New Millennium Experience Company. Vendors should commission 'dry runs' of due diligence ahead of negotiations to identify and rectify deficiencies in information that would otherwise impede reaching deals.

5  Doing the deal is only the start of the story. When entering into long term partnerships public bodies need to put in place sufficient management expertise and resources to ensure that they can be proactive and perceptive partners throughout the implementation phase.