Project finance advisory.

What the work involves

Raising limited-recourse debt is a process of removing reasons for a credit committee to say no. Each one is removed by evidence, by a contractual change, or by someone accepting a risk they were not previously carrying. The adviser’s job is knowing which of the three applies to each objection, and getting it done before the objection hardens into a condition.

We work as an extension of the sponsor’s team through that process, holding the lender relationships, preparing the materials, running due diligence and carrying the transaction to financial close.

Financing strategy and lender sounding

Before anything is approached formally, we establish which lenders are realistically available for this asset, in this country, at this tenor and currency. Commercial banks, development finance institutions, export credit agencies and local banks each have constraints that are not always visible from the outside, including country limits, sector policy and how recently they have done something comparable. Sounding them early shapes the structure while it can still change.

Information package

An information memorandum, a financial model built to the FAST Standard, and a data room organised around the questions lenders will actually ask rather than around how the sponsor’s files happen to be arranged. Material that arrives incomplete or contradictory costs credibility at the first review, and the time lost recovering it is rarely recovered.

Term sheet negotiation

Pricing matters less than the terms that determine whether the project can operate: cover ratio tests and their consequences, distribution lock-up, reserve account sizing, security and step-in, conditions precedent, and what constitutes a default. Sponsors routinely trade margin for terms they later cannot live with. We set out what each concession costs in cash and in flexibility, so the trade is made deliberately.

Due diligence management

Lenders appoint technical, legal, insurance, environmental and market advisers, and each produces findings that become conditions. We coordinate the process, manage the information flow, and work through findings as they emerge rather than at the end. A finding addressed while the adviser is still drafting is a comment. The same finding in a final report is a condition precedent.

Documentation and close

Facility agreements, security documents, direct agreements and intercreditor arrangements, alongside the conditions precedent list that determines the actual close date. We track conditions from first draft, because the item that delays close is usually administrative rather than commercial, and usually visible months earlier.

Blended and concessional structures

Where commercial terms alone do not support the project, concessional tranches, guarantees, political risk cover and results-based instruments can close the gap. Each carries its own eligibility criteria, approval timetable and reporting burden, and those timetables need to be in the plan from the outset rather than discovered when the commercial lenders are ready to sign.

Specialist and local advisers

Technical, environmental and insurance specialists are appointed on both sides of a financing. We scope the sponsor-side appointments to anticipate what the lender-side advisers will examine. Local counsel handles security perfection, registration and regulatory consents, which are jurisdiction-specific and frequently the last thing to complete before close.

Project finance: common questions

When should a financial adviser be appointed?

Before the structure is fixed. What lenders will fund determines the risk allocation, the contract terms and the price, so appointing an adviser after those are settled limits them to explaining constraints rather than shaping around them.

How long does a financing take?

From a complete information package to financial close, six to twelve months is typical on a project financing, longer where development finance institutions or export credit agencies are involved because of their internal approval cycles. Incomplete packages extend it considerably.

What most often delays close?

Conditions precedent that depend on third parties, particularly land registration, security perfection and regulatory consents. Commercial points are usually resolved before documentation. Administrative conditions are frequently underestimated and sit on the critical path.

Do you raise equity as well as debt?

Yes. Equity and debt raising are usually run together, since the equity story and the debt case draw on the same evidence and the same model, and a gap between them is the first thing a diligent investor finds.

Related expertise

• Debt and equity financing preparation
• Term sheet support
• Financial modelling
• Project structuring
• Bid advisory