PPP projects have become larger, but their number has decreased

According to preliminary estimates, in the public-private partnership (PPP) market in 2023, 116 new projects were launched for 765.5 billion rubles, 469.8 billion rubles. of this amount is private investment, according to a review by the National PPP Center (VEB.RF group). Compared to 2022, their number has decreased threefold (then there were 346 projects), the figure has become the minimum over the past few years. In terms of investment volumes, the gap from the record year of 2022 (then 877.6 billion rubles) is not so significant, while there is some growth in private funds (against 433.1 billion rubles).

This dynamics is explained by the consolidation of projects – if in 2022 the average investment in a project was 2.5 billion rubles, then this year it is already 6.8 billion rubles. As Pavel Seleznev, general director of the Civil Human Rights Center, notes, this is due to the implementation of capital-intensive projects with state support – in particular, the construction of campuses, the development of urban electric transport, projects in the field of processing solid municipal waste, the average cost of which exceeds 10 billion rubles.

The increase in the share of private investment could be facilitated by budget deficits and restrictions on budgetary participation in concessions introduced on October 1 – under these conditions, projects with a “sufficient commercial component” become a priority for business. According to the center, over the past two years, 254 agreements worth 386.5 billion rubles have been concluded. without budgetary participation, in which the source of return on investment is direct collection of fees or other commercial activities—such projects account for 25% of the investment volume for 2022–2023.

At the same time, the key driver of PPP development, the center notes, is still the state, the degree of participation of which is increasing – both due to the fact that companies established by development corporations in the regions and government agencies began to act as concessionaires, and through support mechanisms in a number of industries in in combination with other instruments, such as infrastructure bonds and a project finance factory. With state support, the review says, 55 projects worth 586.9 billion rubles were launched in 2023—they account for 76.7% of the total investment for this year.

Evgenia Kryuchkova