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The contract to design, build, finance and maintain the new Perth Stadium and Sports Precinct has reached another important milestone with the naming of WESTADIUM as the Preferred Respondent.

WESTADIUM is a consortium led by Brookfield Financial and John Laing.

Two other consortia had been shortlisted for the project:

• Confidem: led by Capella Capital, and
• Consortium led by Bouygues and Plenary Group

Western Australia's Premier Colin Barnett said each of the three shortlisted private sector consortia submitted world-class bids that addressed the technical, operational and commercial requirements of the State's Request for Proposals. He said:

"The State's evaluation team spent the past four months rigorously evaluating each bid and ultimately determined that WESTADIUM represented the best overall value for money for the design and construction phase plus the contract's 25-year maintenance period.""We expect the contract will be awarded mid-year - which is when we can reveal the successful design."

Following approval of WESTADIUM as the Preferred Respondent by Cabinet yesterday, the state of Western Australia will now enter into exclusive negotiations, seeking to reach final agreement on all of the terms and conditions to design, build, finance and maintain the new Perth Stadium. Cabinet also approved appointment of the Confidem consortium as the Reserve Respondent, in the event that the State cannot successfully conclude negotiations with WESTADIUM.

The estimated investment for the project is AUS$700 million.

Physical pre-construction site works were recently completed six weeks ahead of schedule. The site is now being left to settle under 740,000 tonnes of sand surcharge to ensure it is fully prepared for construction to begin at the end of 2014. The new Perth Stadium is scheduled to open in time for the start of the 2018 AFL season.