ASC 853 Service Concession Arrangements

A service concession arrangement is an arrangement between a grantor and an operating entity for which the terms provide that the operating entity will operate the grantor’s infrastructure (for example, airports, roads, bridges, tunnels, prisons, and hospitals) for a specified period of time. The operating entity may also maintain the infrastructure. The infrastructure already may exist or may be constructed by the operating entity during the period of the service concession arrangement. If the infrastructure already exists, the operating entity may be required to provide significant upgrades as part of the arrangement. Service concession arrangements can take many different forms.

In a typical service concession arrangement, an operating entity operates and maintains for a period of time the infrastructure of the grantor that will be used to provide a public service. In exchange, the operating entity may receive payments from the grantor to perform those services. Those payments may be paid as the services are performed or over an extended period of time. Additionally, the operating entity may be given a right to charge the public (the third-party users) to use the infrastructure. The arrangement also may contain an unconditional guarantee from the grantor under which the grantor provides a guaranteed minimum payment if the fees collected from the third-party users do not reach a specified minimum threshold. This Topic provides guidance for reporting entities when they enter into a service concession arrangement with a public sector grantor who controls or has the ability to modify or approve the services that the operating entity must provide with the infrastructure, to whom it must provide them, and at what price (which could be set within a specified range). The grantor also controls, through ownership, beneficial entitlement, or otherwise, any residual interest in the infrastructure at the end of the term of the arrangement.