This report and the European Services Strategy Unit PPP Equity Database provide detailed evidence of profiteering in the sale of PPP equity.
PPP equity transactions are shrouded in secrecy and a damming indictment on government transparency policies. New disclosure proposals under the new PFI model, Private Finance 2, do not address the basic issues of public disclosure in the expenditure of billions of public expenditure.
The sale of equity in over 700 current PFI projects will continue and there is no proposal to enforce the sharing of profits in existing PPP projects with the public sector.
Public sector minority equity stakes in future PF2 projects is likely to have a marginal effect on windfall gains and entrap local authorities, the NHS and other public sector organisations in playing the secondary market. Furthermore, public sector equity ownership introduces new problems and conflicts in the role of the state.