ACCIONA short-listed to build and operate €600 million cancer facility in Australia

ACCIONA is part of the Aptus Health consortium, one of the three successful groups that have made the short-list for Melbourne's Parkville Comprehensive Cancer Centre.

The Aptus Health consortium, of which ACCIONA is a member, has been short-listed by the Department of Health of the State of Victoria (Australia) to design, build, finance, operate and provide maintenance services for the Parkville Comprehensive Cancer Centre, in Melbourne. The 93,000 square metre research, training and clinical care facility - which will be built on a budget of AUD1 billion (around €600 million) - aims to set the standard worldwide in cancer research.

ACCIONA is the only Spanish company to apply for the tender, doing so as part of the Aptus Health consortium alongside Macquarie Capital, Brookfield Multiplex and Medirest. The two other short-listed groups are Plenary Health and Nexus Partnership.

Worldwide benchmark

The Parkville Comprehensive Cancer Centre will set its sights on becoming a world leader in the detection and treatment of all types of cancers. It will feature 194 beds, 110 day-hospital beds, 8 medi-hotel beds and a 30,000 square meter research area, housing a team of more than 1,400 researchers; training and treatment facilities, six radiotherapy units and parking for 700 vehicles. Construction is scheduled to get under way in the first half of 2011 and the inauguration is expected in 2015.

Australia is a strategic market for ACCIONA, and while the Parkville Centre is the company's first incursion into hospital infrastructures, it has scored high-profile deals in the country in the past, among them the AUD 1.374 billion (around €700 million) contract for the Adelaide desalination plant, through ACCIONA Agua. ACCIONA's water services arm entered Australia in July 2007 alongside the local subsidiary of the UK's United Utilities, with an agreement to develop jointly desalination projects in the country. Today, working with ACCIONA Energy, it delivers end-to-end sustainable development solutions in Australia's Asia Pacific zone. ACCIONA's energy division opened offices in Melbourne in 2002 with the aim of developing renewable energy projects. Since then, it has installed two wind parks - Cathedral Rocks and Waubra - with a total installed capacity of 258 MW.

Proven track-record of hospital expertise

ACCIONA Infrastructure's long-standing experience in building and operating hospitals speaks for itself. The company was recently selected by Mexico's Social Security Institute (IMSS) to build the Hospital General Regional Sustentable (Sustainable Regional General Hospital), in Metepec, Mexico state; it is ACCIONA Infrastructure's sixth hospital in the country.

ACCIONA Infrastructure was also awarded a CAD 270 million (around €170 million) contract to build and manage the Fort St. John Hospital, in British Columbia, Canada. This was ACCIONA's second hospital in the region: in 2008 the company was selected as concessionaire (30 years) of the 35,000 square meter, 500-bed Royal Jubilee Hospital, in Victoria.