The World Bank Group have promoted and financed PPP projects for nearly three decades. The data is based on projects that have been cancelled and projects that are in distress. Cancelled projects are classified as those which the private sector has exited by selling or transferring its economic interest back to the government before fulfilling the contract terms; removing all management and personnel from the concern; or ceasing operation, service provision, or construction for 15% or more of the license or concession period, following the revocation of the license or repudiation of the contract (World Bank, 2016).
Distressed projects are those in which the government or the operator has either requested contract termination or are in international arbitration. The data covers six regions - East Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (Private Participation in Infrastructure Database, World Bank, accessed 21 December 2016).
An analysis of 12,549 PPP energy, telecoms, transport and water and sewerage classified as greenfield, management and concession contracts (excludes privatisation) between 1991-2015 (first half of 2015) in the Private Participation in Infrastructure Database revealed 768 (6.1%) cancelled and distressed contracts representing US$91.1bn (5.4%) of investment. Water and sewerage contracts had the highest level of cancelled and distressed contracts - 6.6% and 1.4% respectively, accounting for 29.3% of investment.