Kelda Consortium Announced As Preferred Bidder For Major Northern Ireland Water Contract

A consortium consisting of Kelda Water Services, Earth Tech and Farrans* has been announced as the preferred bidder for a major £multi-million water services contract in Northern Ireland.

The 25 year ‘Alpha’ project – the first water Private Finance Initiative (PFI) offered by the Northern Ireland Water Service, will involve the design, build and operation of four new water treatment works providing almost half of the province’s drinking water supply (around 400 megalitres per day).

Paul Wynn, managing director of Kelda Water Services (KWS), said: “Being appointed as preferred bidder is excellent news and follows a number of recent successful contract wins for KWS, making the company one of the leading players in the UK water contract operations market.

“A great deal of hard work has gone into preparing the Northern Ireland tender, and we are now looking forward to working with NIWS and our partners on this exciting project to provide significant drinking water quality benefits to customers across Northern Ireland and comply with new EU regulations.”

There will now be a period of discussion to finalise the details and raise the finance needed. Contract signing is planned for early 2006, leading to a scheduled service commencement date of 2008.

As well as the ‘Alpha’ clean water contract, the consortium is also bidding for a waste water contract, being offered by Northern Ireland Water Services known as ‘project Omega’.

In January, KWS signed a 15-year, £700 million deal to run and operate waste water treatment and collection operations in South Wales. And two years ago it was chosen by the Ministry of Defence for a £1 billion contract to manage and operate more than 1,000 sites, ranging from air force bases, garrisons, and dock yards to offices and housing for a period of 25 years.

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*Note To Editors:

The consortium is collectively known as ‘Dalriada Water’. Kelda Water Services is the non-regulated water service subsidiary of Kelda Group plc, and a sister company of Yorkshire Water. Prior to this announcement it had an annual turnover of £100 million.

For Further Details please contact:

Rob Salmon, Director of Corporate Affairs, 01274 692639
David Trenchard, Tulchan, 0207 353 4200