The database contains 226 PPP projects where the selling price and profit from the equity transaction have been identified from reliable sources, mainly regulatory news announcements and company annual reports - see Table 10.
Table 10: PPP equity transactions with profits data available 1998-2012
| Year | Transactions | No of PPP projects | Sale price | % Profit | Average annual rate of return | |
| 2012* | 2 | 3 | 55.3 | 40.2 | 72.7 | 43.3 |
| 2011 | 19 | 28 | 184.6 | 66.0 | 35.7 | 13.5 |
| 2010 | 7 | 29 | 378.4 | 189.0 | 49.9 | 19.2 |
| 2009 | 17 | 41 | 306.0 | 42.9 | 14.0 | 23.5 |
| 2008 | 4 | 9 | 83.1 | 46.3 | 55.7 | 24.8 |
| 2007 | 6 | 23 | 167.2 | 87.5 | 52.3 | 28.4 |
| 2006 | 10 | 36 | 189.3 | 72.5 | 38.3 | 32.5 |
| 2005 | 11 | 14 | 263.3 | 108.5 | 41.2 | 26.6 |
| 2004 | 7 | 16 | 68.0 | 26.3 | 38.7 | 43.9 |
| 2003 | 8 | 20 | 134.6 | 87.3 | 64.8 | 42.3 |
| 2002 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2001 | 1 | 6 | 92.5 | 58.5 | 63.2 | 63.3 |
| 2000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1999 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1998 | 1 | 1 | 3.4 | 4.6 | 0 | 179.3 |
| Total | 93 | 226 | 1,925.7 | 829.6 | n/a | 29.0 |
Source: European Services Strategy Unit PPP Equity Database 2012. * to 30 June 2012.
Very high rates of return have been obtained in some PPP equity transactions - a sample of hospital, housing, waste water, road and prison projects is illustrated in Table 11. The sale of equity in 12 PPP projects resulted in an annual rate of return of over 100% and another 25 had an annual rate of return of between 50%-100%.
Table 11: Examples of high annual returns
| PPP Company | PPP project and year of transaction | % Annual Return |
| Interserve plc | University Hospital London, 2012 | 50.3 |
| Kier Group plc | Aberdeen Waste Water PPP and Hinchingbrooke Hospital, 2011 | 61.0 |
| Balfour Beatty plc | Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Aberdeen Waste Water PPP, 2010 | 59.5 |
| Galliford Try plc | Portsmouth, MoD housing project (148 units), 2008 | 122.8 |
| Interserve plc | Littlemore Psychiatric Hospital, Oxford, 2006 | 53.0 |
| John Laing | M40 Denham to Warwick, 2004 (£6.4m profit in 3 months) | 128.6 |
| Mowlem Construction | City Greenwich Lewisham Rail Link (Docklands Light Railway) 2003 | 73.3 |
| Wackenhut Corrections Corporation Inc | HMP Dovegate, HMP Ashfield, HMP Lowdham Grange Prisons and Hassockfield Secure Training Centre, 2003 | 66.8 |
Source: European Services Strategy Unit PPP Equity Database 2012
| "The PPP business reported a significantly higher result. That was driven by our successful capital recycling program in the UK with the sale of the Group's interest in Romford." Lend Lease Corporation, half-year statement, February 2010 |
Two groups of very high and very low annual rate of returns were examined.
Fourteen transactions (37 projects) had an annual rate of return over 50.0%, with 22 projects sold between 2006-2012.
Forty three projects (11 transactions) had an annual rate of return of under 10.0%. They were grouped into two periods. Five transactions occurred between 2003-2006 with eleven projects having a financial close between 1996-2001. A second group of transactions (32 projects) took place between 2009-2011.
Projects with a high annual rate of return were sold an average 5.1 years between financial close and sale compared to 6.3 years for projects with a low annual rate of return. The average for all projects in the ESSU database was 6.03 years (Table 3). A comparison of the profile of the 43 projects with the total number of PPP projects in equity transactions (Table 5) reveals that health projects were significantly under-represented, 11.6% compared 30.4% of the total, and criminal justice, defence, housing and waste/water projects accounted for a larger proportion of the 43 projects.