Infrastructure group Interserve has agreed to sell part of its stake in the University College London Hospitals (UCLH) PFI project for £35 million.

The firm is selling an investment vehicle it owns in the project to CFIG Unicorn Holdings, but will retain a 16.7% stake in the PFI after the deal.

Interserve began working with UCLH as part of the winning PFI consortium in 2000. It managed the transition of services from the old premises to the new hospital and will continue to provide facilities management services until the end of the PFI contract in 2040, when the hospital will be handed over to UCLH NHS Foundation Trust.

“The sale of part of our interest in the UCLH PFI project demonstrates the ongoing enactment of our strategy of making our PFI portfolio self-financing over the medium term,” said Tim Haywood, Interserve’s group finance director.

“Our approach is to dispose of assets once we have added most of the value possible in a given contract. We have taken the opportunity to do this with UCLH, which comes after several recent investments including in the South-West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, and the West Yorkshire Police PFI.”