The increasing use of Public-Private Partnerships (P3) concessions as a delivery option for complex highway projects in the US has been facilitated through a wide range of financial, technical and policy initiatives undertaken by the US Department of Transportation (USDOT). This Report on P3s assesses and synthesizes the experience of the 28 highway P3 concession projects that have been implemented in the U.S. since 1992.
The report assesses trends and market developments that have occurred for three different groups of P3s: real toll concessions, availability payments concessions and long-term leases. The report analyzes how the use of different financing strategies and procurement structures have evolved over time, focusing in particular on the use of federal financial tools and related approvals.
The report includes an appendix with 28 narrative P3 Story documents providing comprehensive information on each highway P3 project that has reached financial close in the United States since 1992. These documents convey the stories behind these projects and how they came to be procured on a P3 basis. Presented in a parallel format, the P3 Story documents provide physical descriptions of the different projects and describe the history behind them and the steps that led to the decision to implement them on a P3 basis. The P3 Story narratives also describe the procurement process that was used to award the P3 concessions and thorough descriptions of how they were financed. They also discuss the implementation process and track significant developments that have occurred after these innovative projects entered service.
The report has been prepared using information from a wide variety of sources. These include reports and other documentation available on project websites, information from FHWA's extensive project databases, industry journals, and interaction with public agencies sponsoring P3 projects and private sector developers who implement and operate P3 projects. The information in the body of the report is largely synthesized from the contents of the P3 Story documents.
This Report on P3s is organized into four chapters. Chapter 2 provides a brief overview of P3 typologies, transaction types and payment models and accompanying discussions of the opportunities and challenges encountered in application of this delivery option. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the federal role in the P3 concession process, identifying the different financial tools and related approval processes that can be used to advance P3 projects, as well as Build America Bureau and FHWA activities supporting P3 concession projects. The bulk of the analytical information in the report can be found in Chapter 4. This chapter presents trends and market developments that have occurred over the baseline horizon for real toll concessions, availability payment concessions and long-term leases.
Fourteen, or exactly half of the P3 concessions to have reached financial close in the U.S. since 1992, are real toll projects. These projects include three "greenfield" toll roads, two water body crossings, and nine priced managed lane facilities. Eleven of these facilities have opened to traffic and the remaining three are in construction. The concession periods for these project range from 35 years to 85 years, and average nearly 52 years. Of the eleven open real toll facilities, two have been purchased by public sector transportation authorities, and a third filed for bankruptcy in 2016. The concession period of one project was extended by 20 years in order to help it to avoid bankruptcy, another was extended to help recoup losses earlier in the concession period, and two others were refinanced, one in the face of lower than anticipated toll proceeds. The remaining five operational real toll P3 projects opened to revenue traffic during 2014-2016 and initial financial results from these projects appear to be exceeding expectations in most cases. Real toll concessions involve the greatest degree of risk transfer from the public to the private sector. They may result in significant financial losses and in some cases profits for private investment partners, while shielding the public sector from financial volatility.
A total of nine availability payment P3 projects have reached financial close since 2009. Over half of U.S. availability payment activity has been concentrated in two states: Florida, with three availability payment projects, and Indiana with two. The pace at which availability payment P3 projects have been developed gained momentum in 2014 and 2015, with five projects reaching financial close in those two years alone. However, deal flow slowed in 2016, and it appears that there may be fewer availability projects in coming years.1
Availability payment P3 procurements have proven an effective strategy to accelerate the completion of large and expensive projects that would otherwise be built in smaller pieces. As with real toll projects, they also transfer lifecycle risk to the private partner and incentivize long-term maintenance efficiencies and cost savings. They can also engender rigorous competition among the companies bidding for availability payment concessions, given that award decisions are based primarily on cost.
While some sponsors may initially have equated availability payments with off-balance-sheet transactions, the financial markets consider them equivalent to public debt. As such, the use of availability payment concessions may put downward pressure on state credit ratings. Public agencies should have a clear understanding of the impact availability payment obligations will have on their budgets and the state's credit rating. Availability payment procurements are attractive to private sector developers because they mitigate the troublesome revenue risks associated with real toll projects. However, their upside profit potential is capped by the availability payments, which are fixed. Real toll concessions provide the potential for greater profit, but with much higher risks.
A total of five long-term lease concessions have reached financial close in the U.S. between 2005 and 2011. While other project owners have considered leasing toll facilities, no other lease concessions have occurred in the ensuing period. All long-term leases include a commitment to operations and maintenance over the concession term. However, unlike similar commitments for availability payment concessions, adhering to established performance standards is not as easily enforced since there are no performance-based availability payments. Lease transactions may also include provisions for facility expansion.
Experience with long-term leases in the U.S. has been mixed. Most long-term lease concessions are no longer held by their original private sector equity investors and two have incurred bankruptcies. While several initial private sector investors have been challenged to realize expected returns from their investments in the near- term, public sector sponsors have generally benefited from their long-term lease transactions. Project sponsors have received large upfront payments when entering into lease agreements. However, they have foregone the income that these existing toll facilities would have provided them.
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1 "Where Did P3 Deal Flow Go?" Public Works Financing, September 2015, pp 11-15.