Joint Venture - AWG appointed preferred bidder

    21 January 2004

  AWG in joint venture appointed preferred bidder for new Birmingham General   
                                   Hospital                                    

AWG, as part of a joint venture, has been appointed preferred bidder for the £
521 million Birmingham Acute and Adult Psychiatric Hospitals PPP Project.

AWG Project Investments, which has a 15 per cent shareholding, is part of the
joint venture Consort Healthcare (Birmingham) with Balfour Beatty, the Royal
Bank of Scotland and HSBC.

The project, to be awarded by the University Hospital Birmingham Trust and
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust, will provide Birmingham with its
first new general hospital for 70 years and is critical to the way hospital
services will be provided in the city in future. Clinical facilities will be
improved by a new 1,249-bedded acute inpatient facility, a 137-bed specialist
psychiatric hospital, a teaching facility. A further two mental health
facilities at Sparkbrook and Stirchley also form part of the project.

The 35-year concession is to finance, design, build and maintain these new
facilities. The five-year construction programme will be undertaken by a joint
venture consisting of AWG Construction Services, Balfour Beatty Construction
and Haden Young.

Ends

Issued by AWG Plc. For further details contact Mike Keohane on 01480 323280



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