Our People

Matthew Allen

Chief Investment Officer

Matthew has over 18 years of experience of the infrastructure sector.

Since joining Rock in 2011, Matthew has played a leading role in the negotiation of the commercial aspects of all of Rock’s fleet.  He also played a lead role in the procurement and delivery of the Mersey Gateway Bridge PPP, which successfully opened in October 2017. In January 2020, Matthew started as Rock’s Head of Compliance and Risk to support the successful delivery of Rock’s fleets and later that year became Rock’s Chief Investment Officer.

Matthew has acted as a deal principal, financial advisor, a joint lead arranger and bookrunner and a legal advisor on infrastructure projects which gives him a unique perspective and insight into how to structure a project to bring it to a successful conclusion.

Matthew has specialized in PPP across all sectors from roads, parking and airports to the healthcare and education sectors, both in the UK, Europe and North America.

Prior to joining Rock, Matthew worked as a Vice President in the Royal Bank of Scotland’s infrastructure finance group (in New York) and was an Associate in DLA Piper’s commercial and projects team (in London).

Notable transactions

Rail

  • Rock Rail West Coast – led the successful origination and execution of Rock Rail’s bid to buy and finance a fleet of 135 Hitachi AT300 cars for use on the West Coast Partnership franchise
  • Rock Rail East Midlands – supported Rock’s successful bid and execution of its financing of a fleet of 165 BMU cars to be supplied by Hitachi for the East Midlands franchise
  • Rock Rail South Western – Led the commercial negotiations for Rock Rail with First MTR and Bombardier on this £1bn transaction to buy and finance 750 Aventra cars for use on the South Western franchise
  • Rock Rail East Anglia – Led the commercial negotiations for Rock Rail with Abellio and Stadler on this £700m transaction to buy and finance almost 400 Flirt cars for use on the East Anglia franchise
  • Rock Rail Moorgate – assisted in the commercial negotiations for Rock Rail with GTR and Siemens on this £300m transaction to buy and finance 150 Desiro City cars for use on the TSGN franchise

Transport

  • Mersey Gateway Bridge PPP – Assistant Commercial Director for the public sector delivery team of this innovative PPP that closed in 2014. Matthew has been actively involved in this project through its construction leading to its opening in October 2017
  • Southeast Stoney Trail PPP – Financial advisor to the winning Acciona/SNC Lavalin consortium on the C$769m Southeast Stoney Trail PPP project, which involved the construction of part of the ring road around Calgary, Alberta
  • Chicago Parking Meters– Joint Lead Arranger to the winning consortium in the $1.15bn 75 year concession of the City of Chicago’s parking meters
  • Pennsylvania Turnpike – Joint Lead Arranger and Joint Bookrunner on the financing arranged in support of Citi Infrastructure Investors’ and Abertis’ winning $12.8bn bid for the Pennsylvania Turnpike concession
  • Jackson Airport Parkway – Advised a bidder on the Jackson Airport Parkway greenfield toll road project in Mississippi
  • Northwest Parkway – Joint Lead Arranger and Sole Bookrunner on the financing arranged in connection with Brisa’s acquisition of the Northwest Parkway toll road in Denver, Colorado. The deal was voted North American Transport Deal of the Year 2007 by Project Finance magazine
  • M25 DBFO – Legal advisor to the funders supporting Ferrovial’s and Laing O”Rourke’s bid for the M25 DBFO project, the largest DBFO road project to date

Healthcare

  • Taunton Oncology PFI – Legal advisor to Innisfree, the project’s sponsors, in this ground-breaking transaction that was the first healthcare PFI project where medical equipment risk was not ring-fenced