Infrastructure and Long-Term, Capital-Intensive Projects
GH will act as the financial advisor (FA) to the:
• Sponsors
• Lenders
• Project Companies
In project finance (PF), structured finance (SF) and public-private partnership (PPP) projects.
Sponsor and Project Company Advisory
GH clients may wish to structure a business or infrastructure investment as a project financing for reasons including new business line or geography, low-cost borrowing access, ease of obtaining customer offtake agreements, sufficient equity ring-fenced, and non-recourse or limited recourse loans that remain off balance sheet (which can be especially important in the case of restrictive debt covenants). The financial advisor is tasked with organizing meetings, managing data requests, and otherwise moving the project along given the many constituents of the deal teams. The financial advisor works closely with the sponsor and the sponsors’ attorneys on all aspects of the transaction to completion including development of the comprehensive and continuously evolving financial model to determine debt capacity, negotiating leverage and many other parameters.
Lender Advisory, Project Debt, Non-Recourse Debt
GH as the Lender FA works with the Sponsor FA to review and co-advise on the financial model, review the project’s pipeline and other revenue drivers, and otherwise generally determine whether the project as structured qualifies for non-recourse project finance or ECA debt, as a matter of financial sufficiency and credit support as well as the institution’s or ECA’s project finance Principles including OECD and in-house guidelines. It is a very intensive assignment with a minimum of biweekly calls and coordination with other Advisors such as Technical, Insurance and environmental-social-governance (ESG) Advisors.
GH employs a Domains basis to achieve the completion of the assignment, which is often a matter of delivering written materials and a presentation under strict timetables and guidelines, for example in the format of Phase I, Phase II and Phase III. GH will retain its own technical consultant to provide unique insight and risk management beyond that of some other financial advisors and investment banks.
Example Project Finance Domain Flow Diagram for Phase I:
Risks of Project Finance
GH is experienced enough and knows the risks including:
• Technical, construction, timing and delay risks including EPC review
• Legal risk
• Regulatory risk
• Market risk including total addressable market (TAM) and reasonableness check, if any such risk is permitted
• Financial risk
• Insurance risk
GH maintains and drives an Issues List to ensure that the client is completely informed of any remaining due diligence items and may carefully assess the various risks of the project. The risks are assessed for impact and either mitigated or factored into the financing.
Structured Finance
GH will consider advising on structured finance products in special servicer scenarios or when the underlying assets are commercial (i.e. not retail), including:
• Equipment leases
• Aircraft loans
• Commercial lending
• Commercial real estate
• Debt securities
Or when the underlying instruments are auctioned, or restructured, or need to be, with the benefit of GH’s assistance, attention to detail and tailored organization skills.
GH for Project Finance
Contact us using our form, or simply call 1-212-713-0400 to speak with us about your project and its project finance requirements.
