The rapid growth of offshore secondary market infrastructure funds is at the centre of a £17.1bn industry, which is buying and selling hospitals, health centres, schools, colleges, and roads like financial commodities. Public infrastructure is being financialised with the emergence of new market forces - a secondary market for the sale of equity in PFI/PPP project companies and the formation of new infrastructure funds that have increased offshoring of PFI/PPP equity and increased opportunities for wealthy and institutional shareholders.
The average annual rate of return on the sale of equity in individual/small bundles was 28% (based on 110 transactions involving 277 PFI/PPP projects between 1998-2016). The three-way profit gain - original SPV shareholders, secondary market fund sales and secondary market fund shareholder dividends - means the total annual rate of return could be between 45%-60% - three to five times the rate of return in PFI/PPP final business cases (Whitfield, 2012 and 2016).