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Liability Transfer

We've called our specialist liability transfer offering 'Active Transfer'. 

Active Transfer - A Different Perspective

We take a different perspective on the management of environmental liabilities. At WSP we will assume responsibility for managing the known and unknown obligations associated with a site in return for an agreed, one-off fee.  The difference is that the fee is isolated in a Trust managed by an independent Trustee, so you know your funding is secure and used solely to eliminate your liabilities.

The obligation to address the environmental liabilities and remediation of one or more sites are placed contractually into a specifically designed and focused company. This structure protects your investment and allows you complete visibility of how we are managing your former liability. In this process you can choose to be involved as much or as little as you want to be.

Our Active Transfer proposition is a powerful concept, protecting your brand image in the marketplace and allowing you to focus on your core business:

• For owners of sites it can release capital by reducing and simplifying the financial provisions made for environmental risks. By effectively outsourcing the management of environmental obligations to a secure vehicle for a one off fixed fee, risk is reduced and balance sheet provisions may be removed, under certain conditions.

• It can unlock deals and opportunities where immediate analysis of a contaminated site might indicate an unacceptable level of risk. This enables buyers and sellers to negotiate the transfer of assets free from the cost uncertainty of historical environmental liabilities.

• Sellers negotiate a market value for a site in the knowledge they have responsibly managed their liabilities; buyers do not need to make future provision for unknown environmental liabilities associated with a site, and can focus on the value in a transaction without being concerned about unexpected burdens to the balance sheet.

We layer the protection between our client and the risks associated with an environmentally impaired site.  In a transaction, we extend the protections to both the buyer and seller.  This kind of security is a welcome one where environmental risk is concerned.