Build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) or build-operate-transfer (BOT) is a form of project financing, wherein a private entity receives a concession from the private or public sector to finance, design, construct, and operate a facility stated in the concession contract. This enables the project proponent to recover its investment, operating and maintenance expenses in the project.
Due to the long-term nature of the arrangement, the fees are usually raised during the concession period. The rate of increase is often tied to a combination of internal and external variables, allowing the proponent to reach a satisfactory internal rate of return for its investment.
Examples of countries using BOT are Thailand, Turkey, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia[1], Israel, India, Iran, Croatia, Japan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Egypt, and a few U.S. states (California, Florida, Indiana, Texas, and Virginia). However, in some countries, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the term used is build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT).
Traditionally, such projects provide for the infrastructure to be transferred to the government at the end of the concession period. In Australia, primarily for reasons related to the borrowing powers of states, the transfer obligation may be omitted. For the Alice Springs - Darwin section of the Adelaide-Darwin Railway the lease period is 50 years, see AustralAsia Rail Corporation.
Forms of project finance are:
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BOT finds extensive application in the infrastructure projects and in public private partnership. In the BOT framework a third party, for example the public administration, delegates to a private sector entity to design and build infrastructure and to operate and maintain these facilities for a certain period. During this period the private party has the responsibly to raise the finance for the project and is entitled to retain all revenues generated by the project and is the owner of the regarded facility. The facility will be then transferred to the public administration at the end of the concession agreement, without any remuneration of the private entity involved. Some or even all of the following different parties could be involved in any BOT project:
In general, a project is financially viable for the private entity if the revenues generated by the project cover its cost and provide sufficient return on investment. On the other hand, the viability of the project for the host government depends on its efficiency in comparison with the economics of financing the project with public funds. .Even the host government could borrow money on better conditions compared to that of the public sector other factors could offset this particular advantage. For example, the expertise and efficiency that that the private entity is expected to bring as well as the risk transfer.Therefore the private entity bears a substantial part of the risk. These are some types of the most common risks involved:
A BOOT structure differs from BOT in that the private entity owns the works. During the concession period the private company owns and operates the facility with the prime goal to recover the costs of investment and maintenance while trying to achieve higher margin on project. The specific characteristics of BOOT make it suitable for infrastructure projects like highways, roads mass transit, railway transport and power generation and as such they have political importance for the social welfare but are not attractive for other types of private investments. BOOT & BOT are methods which find very extensive application in countries which desire ownership transfer and operations including. Some advantages of BOOT projects are:
In a BOO project ownership of the project remains usually with the Project Company for example a mobile phone network. Therefore the private company gets the benefits of any residual value of the project. This framework is used when the physical life of the project coincides with the concession period. A BOO scheme involves large amounts of finance and long payback period. Some examples of BOO projects come from the water treatment plants. This facilities run by private companies process raw water, provided by the public sector entity, into filtered water, which is after returned to the public sector utility to deliver to the customers. [6]
Under BLT a private entity builds a complete project and leases it to the government. On this way the control over the project is transferred from the project owner to a lessee. In other words the ownership remains by the shareholders but operation purposes are leased. After the expiry of the leasing the ownership of the asset and the operational responsibility are transferred to the government at a previously agreed price. For foreign investors taking into account the country risk BLT provides good conditions because the project company maintains the property rights while avoiding operational risk.
Design- Build- Finance- Operate is a project delivery method very similar to BOOT except that there is no actual ownership transfer. Moreover, the contractor assumes the risk of financing till the end of the contract period. The owner then assumes the responsibility for maintenance and operation. Some disadvantages of DCMF are the difficulty with long term relationships and the threat of possible future political changes which may not agree with prior commitments.This model is extensively used in specific infrastructure projects such as toll roads. The construction company build a private entity which is in charge to design and construct an infrastructure for the government which is the true owner. Moreover the private entity has the responsibility to raise finance during the construction and the exploitation period. The cash flows serve to repay the investment and reward its shareholders. They end up in form of periodical payment to the government for the use of the infrastructure. The government has the advantage that it remains the owner of the facility and at the same time avoids direct payment from the users. Additionally, the government succeeds to avoid getting into debt and to spread out the cost for the road over the years of exploitation.[7]
Some examples for the DCMF model are the prisons or the public hospitals. A private entity is build to design, construct, manage, and finance a facility, based on the specifications of the government. Project cash flows result from the government’s payment for the rent of the facility. In the case of the hospitals, the government has the ownership over the facility and has the price and quality control. The same financial model could be applied on other projects such as prisons. Therefore this model could be interpreted as a mean to avoid new indebtedness of public finance.