It has been a turbulent, yet fruitful year for American P3s. With politics continuing to dominate the markets in most of the key countries, where better than Washington, DC, to discuss the future of the industry and to celebrate the successes that continue to drive growth across all countries?
At the end of September, around 300 delegates from the public and private sectors gathered at the Mayflower Hotel to toast another solid year in almost all countries.
The evening’s awards ceremony was preceded by the P3 Hub Americas conference, which saw special assistant to the president for infrastructure policy DJ Gribbin provide delegates with the latest news from the Trump administration on its much-discussed infrastructure plans.
With a lack of clear direction being provided by the government (even at the time of going to press), the US market is rallying. It has long been suggested that it will be the regional government agencies that drive dealflow, so despite the stalling from the feds, there remained plenty to celebrate.
Canada has also rallied amid political changes over the past year. With the implementation of the Canadian Infrastructure Bank (CIB) now set to come to pass, many investors have been left wondering where they stand under a regime that wants to do things its own way. But this has not impacted dealflow in the country, which continues to deliver excellent deals across all sectors – something that was not missed by the judges.
Latin America has also demonstrated impressive resilience in 2017. This year has seen positive steps taken in Uruguay and Argentina, to go alongside usual suspects Colombia and Brazil, highlighting why many investors are taking note of the region, despite the continued impact of the Odebrecht corruption scandal affecting several markets.
P3 Bulletin editor Dan Colombini kicked off the evening by welcoming the guests to the event, highlighting the great work that had gone into growing the market this year. He was followed onstage by the evening’s host – and familiar face to attendees to this year’s sister event, the Partnerships Awards in London – Colin Murray (pictured above), who was making his first appearance at the Americas ceremony.
It was once again a good night for the hugely successful Canadian provincial procurement agency Infrastructure Ontario, which claimed the Gold Award in the Government Agency of the Year category.
This year’s ceremony also saw the Best Individual Contribution prize celebrating the solid work done at municipal level in the US, with the award going to LA Mayor Eric Garcetti. Among the other winners on the night was SMBC for Debt Provider of the Year. KPMG scooped the Gold Award as Financial Advisor of the Year, with Virginia’s Transform 66 P3 Project winning the top award in the Best Transportation category.
Click on the PDF below to see highlights from the evening as well as all the winners.