• Record financial closings with £101.9 million of investment committed in seven new projects 

• Secondary acquisitions  in the UK and Canada worth £51.1 million

• Total committed investment of £153 million represents a significant increase in the rate of investment  (2006: £23 million and 2005: £43 million)

• Equity commitment pipeline combining committed investment, preferred bidder projects and shortlisted  projects (40% by value) risen to £286.1 million (2006: £206.4 million and 2005: £184 million)

• Value of existing portfolio at 31st December 2007 risen 38% in absolute value terms with underlying growth  at 21%

• Strong growth in overseas element of portfolio to £111 million, representing 18% of total, up from 11% in  2006

• Sale of Laing Rail to Deutsche Bahn completed in March 2008

Adrian Ewer, Chief Executive of John Laing plc said,

‘John Laing has delivered a very strong performance in 2007 with a significant pipeline of good opportunities both in the UK and overseas.

‘In the UK our traditional private finance initiative market remains significant but it is maturing. There remains scope for growth in the waste and renewables sectors and we are developing alternative procurement models to take advantage of new opportunities.

‘Overseas markets offer huge opportunities for growth. John Laing is well positioned in its chosen markets of Canada, USA, Europe, India and South East Asia with a local presence now established in all these territories. We are actively bidding in all these markets and expect to achieve significant growth over the next 12 months.’
 

For further enquires contact:

Madano Partnership
Matthew Moth/Charles Reynolds/Vicky Ferries    020 7593 4000

Christine Jones at John Laing plc    020 7901 3200

For more about John Laing plc go to: http://www.laing.com/

Further financial and operational details:

Financial closings: During the year John Laing committed a record total of £101.9 million in financial closings in the following projects in the UK and internationally:

Secondary Investments: During the financial year, John Laing made secondary investments in five projects – including two Canadian health projects in Vancouver and Abbotsford at £43.7million. :

Portfolio valuation
During the year the Directors’ valuation of the portfolio, using John Laing’s consistent methodology, increased to £606.6 million at the 31st December from £439.3 million, an absolute increase of 38%. Underlying growth, excluding the effect of acquisitions and other cash movements, was £101.3 million representing an uplift of 21%.

Strategy and Outlook
John Laing’s strategy is to continue to build a successful business as a leading sponsor of privately financed investment in infrastructure on a global basis.

Our mission is to succeed by using our expertise to create sustainable value for all our stakeholders. We aim to achieve this by enabling and organising winning partnerships with the public sector and by delivering innovative development solutions which operate for the benefit of communities worldwide. 
 
UK market remains strong but is maturing
In the UK, 625 PFI projects have been signed with a £58.7 billion capital value. 510 projects are now operational, with £5.3 billion capital value of signed deals in 2007 and a further £23.3 billion to be signed over next 5 years. There is also a local authority pipeline of £20.1 billion (of which £7.9 billion not yet scheduled).

While we continue to see good opportunities in this, our largest market, the speed and extent of growth is slowing as it reaches maturity.  There continue to be a strong range of opportunities across key sectors: health, education, roads, including street lighting and highways maintenance, waste and regeneration focused on social housing.

There are a range of other prospects across areas such as emergency services and private developer schemes for courts. We are also pursuing a number of Local Authority Estate-wide regeneration projects which are suited to John Laing’s integrated range of skills. 

Global development is at the heart of our growth strategy
John Laing’s growth opportunities will come from the development of our chosen international geographical markets of Europe, the USA, Canada, India and SE Asia.

In recent months we have secured new investment opportunities in Hungary and The Netherlands, the pipeline of future opportunities in all of our targeted overseas markets is encouraging.

Looking forward
Infrastructure investment and development has continued to demonstrate stable characteristics in spite of the turbulence created by the global credit crunch in other asset classes.

Within our selected geographic markets we continue to see strong demand for John Laing’s services across a range of disciplines from transport and social infrastructure through to major regeneration projects.

We are continuing to develop new, innovative approaches to procurement that create real partnerships with the public sector, delivering new assets and services right at the heart of the communities.

We have the firepower to enact our strategic plans on an international basis and look forward to creating further momentum and growth in the year ahead.