Balfour Beatty makes £42m profit out of Pinderfields and Pontefract Hospitals

Balfour Beatty announced it had cashed in its 50 per cent interest in the hospitals for £61.5m today.

The firm said the figure “exceeded” its expectations and represented a £42.2m profit.

Balfour Beatty built Pinderfields and Pontefract hospitals as part of a finance deal with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) arrangement meant the hospitals were to be leased back from the companies by Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust over 35 years.

In 2011, through its subsidiary Royal Bank Project Investments, RBS sold its 50 per cent stake to HICL Infrastructure, an investment company originally set up by HSBC bank.

Now Balfour Beatty has sold its share to the same company.

The sale was made as Mid Yorkshire faces a financial deficit of around £20m.

Redundancies and pay cuts have been made to slash millions of pounds from Mid Yorkshire’s budget to balance the books.