The largest public private partnership (P3) bond financing in Canada has raised $1.37 billion for a new Montreal hospital. It is for what must be one of the longest P3 deals as well -- a 38.8 year deal to build, finance, and maintain the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM). The National Post reports that the four equity partners in the P3 deal are all European corporations. Canadian and Quebec partners were squeezed out once again, it seems. The P3 financing deal is also the lowest-rated one ever to come to market. The Post reports that the bonds came with a 6.721% coupon. "Part of the difficulty attracting buyers was the credit profile of the investment. The issue was rated BBB (high) by DBRS, one notch higher than the Baa2 assigned by Moody's Investors Service Inc. Every single P3 that has been broadly marketed so far in Canada has enjoyed an A-level rating." The Post goes on to note: "If the CHUM deal proved one thing, it's
Notes from Leftwords -- Doug Allan