Adelaide Desalination Plant

When the decision was made to address Adelaide’s water shortages with the building of a desalination plant, it was vital for South Australia Water to lock in a secure, long term supply of competitively priced renewable energy to power it. Corrs and the South Australian Crown Solicitors Office had to find innovative ways to structure the 20-year deal, believed to be valued at $1.5 billion, in a rapidly-changing legislative environment with ongoing debate about a carbon tax. A change in Federal Government policy required a redrafting of all documentation part way through the process but the result was a successful environmental outcome.

Mundaring Water Treatment Project

The Mundaring Water Treatment project, which will ensure the long term supply of high-quality water to the Goldfields and Agricultural region of Western Australia, is one of a limited number of Western Australian Public Private partnerships proceeding at the current time.

Since August 2009, Corrs has worked closely with the WA Water Corporation, preparing all documentation, negotiating with preferred tenderers and finalising the project documentation with the successful bidder to close the PPP.

Queensland Water Restructure

Corrs advised Queensland Treasury in relation to restructure of water assets including transfer of bulk water infrastructure from existing water entities and local governments to the Queensland Bulk Water Supply Authority and the Queensland Bulk Water Transport Authority.

The water reforms included merging over 20 organisations into three new statutory authorities.

This required a closely coordinated Corrs team with wide-ranging skills to resolve the myriad legal, regulatory, health and safety, asset management, employment and industrial relations, land tenure and intellectual property issues involved.

Victorian Desalination PPP

The Victorian Desalination Project represents the largest public sector investment in water infrastructure in Australia’s history. The development of the seawater desalination plant at Wonthaggi in southern Victoria was announced as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) in July 2009 with a capital cost of approximately $3.5 billion.

Corrs acted for the State of Victoria and advised the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) Capital Projects Division on the project. The project required Corrs to fully integrate its legal team with the technical, environmental, financial and insurance advisors to DSE Capital Projects Division.

Corrs had a lead advisory role in assisting the State to develop the funding solutions for the project, conducted in the most adverse financial markets since the Great Depression.

The solutions were developed in real-time as the Global Financial Crisis was unfolding, with information available to bidders, financiers and the State changing rapidly.

The project also achieved contract close earlier than the announced timetable.

Through the competitive bidding process, intensive interactive sessions were undertaken with both bidders in parallel, resulting in two fully documented proposals prior to selection of a preferred bidder and execution of documents immediately thereafter.

Corrs was also fully involved in the development of the commercial structure for the project, public hearings and applications for key approvals (including the Environment Effects Statement), assisting in briefing government decision makers, assisting in evaluating and advising on procurement and negotiating finalised project documentation.

Corrs received a Financial Excellence Award at Infrastructure Partnerships Australia’s 2010 National Infrastructure Awards for its work on the $3.5 billion Victorian Desalination Project. Projects were judged on financial engineering, structuring and innovation, as well as the scale, complexity, size and difficulty of the financial structure.

The project has received extensive industry recognition with 12 international and national awards including Global Deal of the Year 2009 and Global PPP Deal of the Year 2009 at the Infrastructure Journal Annual Awards, Asia-Pacific PPP Deal of the Year at the 2009 Project Finance International Awards and 2009 Deal of the Year by Asian-Counsel.