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France’s largest banks are battling harsh market conditions by shedding jobs and reducing their balance sheets. Does this spell an end to their leadership in project lending or is it a chance for a strategic repositioning? By Antony Collins.
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Canadian institutional investors looking for higher yields are driving the boom in publicly-rated PPP infrastructure bonds. Would the market survive a substantial default? Edward Russell reports.
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Turkish lenders have to contend with looming gas industry restructuring, higher funding costs and new renewables legislation. Sponsor support, and structures that allow it to change over time, are key. Robin Sayles reports.
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The European Union is making a concerted effort to develop a capital markets product for infrastructure financing. Is a fresh bout of financial engineering necessary, or will government approaches to procurement and bank regulation be more important? By Paul Smith.
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The Arab Spring is unlikely to dent the progress of Saudi Arabia’s vast project pipeline. But with constrained international bank liquidity and immature capital markets, access to private capital is a continuing obstacle for project financings. By Paul Smith.
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The surge in US shale gas production presents huge opportunities for power and midstream gas project financings. But production and environmental costs are not fully understood. By Edward Russell.
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French PPP is likely to have its busiest year yet, on the back of big-ticket government accommodation and transport deals. But there’s still no sign of an end to the market dominance of the big three French sponsors. Robert Smith reports.
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As domestic banks brush against exposure limits, dollar ECB debt is finally making some headway in the Indian power market. But sponsors are finding a combination of fuel price and interest rate volatility hard to manage. Robin Sayles reports.
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The Brazilian bond market is now open for road issuers looking for long-dated no-strings project financing. But are institutions’ appetites enough to meet governments’ requirements? John Rumsey reports from Sao Paulo.
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The three deals that closed in Russian PPP this year took years of effort and ended with little risk transfer to the private sector. Can legislative changes build on these substantial but untested foundations? And can the PPP sector tap new forms of funding and spread to social infrastructure? By Antony Collins.
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The Middle East power sector is thriving. The Barka 3/Sohar 2 tenders attracted a record eight serious bidders. But while the developer sector attracts new entrants there are only 12, arguably 15, active international banks to finance projects. By Paul Smith.
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Ontario and British Columbia should now be in a position to justify the benefits of long-term PPPs. But both are turning back towards simpler construction financings. Edward Russell reports.
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Roughly 18 months after the stimulus bill made it possible, leasing has taken off in the US wind market. But with the US renewables incentive regime in flux, the familiar partnership flip structure still has its adherents. By Tom Nelthorpe.
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Australia’s state governments have so far been unwilling to put pressure on bid costs, or spell out a deal pipeline, for sponsors. Can a recent federally-commissioned report spur them to offer a more tempting slate of deals? By Ben Power.
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US accounting principles were tightened post-Enron, however the ownership and control structure behind Suntech’s off-balance sheet treatment of its equity investment in GSF raises questions over whether they were tightened enough. Paul Smith investigates.
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Italian PV solar projects face a period of uncertainty as the Italian government backs away from the most attractive feed-in tariffs in Europe. Can Italy avoid the vertiginous drop in development that Spain suffered? Paul Smith reports.
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The last set of capital adequacy regulations – Basel II – had a nasty set of surprises for project lenders. The new regulations – Basel III – are blunter, but no less worrying for the project market. Paul Smith reports.
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Once one of Europe's flagship PPP markets, Spanish PPP has slowed. The government plans to deal with the legacy of early real tolls and stimulate a static market with the Extraordinary Infrastructure Development Plan. But will that be enough? By Marcus Bensasson.
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The credit crisis has had an impact on the ratings agencies' volume of public work, and they operate under much greater regulatory scrutiny. Banks and agencies will need to decide whether they are competitors or
collaborators. Robin Sayles reports.
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Despite the breadth and depth of financed projects within the Middle East, procurement processes still vary widely country to country. Paul Smith examines tendering successes, failures and procurer responses to a less benign lending environment.
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Petrobras' last round of drill-ship procurements fell victim to cost overruns and a collapsing bank market. Can the market recover, and clear the backlog, in time for the next round of bids? By Tom Nelthorpe.
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Given the retreat from leverage, the drop in passenger numbers and withering investor demand are airports merely witnessing a cyclical decline or something more pernicious and long-lasting? Paul Smith reports.
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The fast-track US treasury's cash grants programme has catalysed the flow of debt and equity to US wind projects. But sponsor consensus on the best financial structures – and an easier life for bankers – is still far off. By Tom Nelthorpe
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Despite difficult credit conditions a number of Portuguese toll road deals reached financial close during the first half of 2009. But the historical bane of Portuguese PPP – politics – has again frozen the deal flow.
By Michael Marray.
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US PPP deal volume is struggling – and debt markets are only partly to blame. Will promoters' last best hope – fiscal crisis in local government – produce the result they want? Tom Nelthorpe reports.
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The BreBeMi project pushes the build-now-pay-later ethos of PPPs further than any other deal closed to date. Could this be the solution to Italy's slate of perennially-delayed transport projects? Paul Smith reports.
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Three financings for US gas-fired plants – for GenConn, Midland Cogen and Astoria II – are in the market. They provide a good guide to banks' comfort levels, but not to whether there will be a revival in development activity. By Tom Nelthorpe
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Mexico has introduced a raft of inducements to maintain
sponsor interest in the Farac roads programme. But matching the success of the first package will be difficult. By John Rumsey.
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Infrastructure funds have plenty of equity ready to be deployed, as they benefit from cautious investors looking for a new, more solid, asset class. But their challenge in 2009 will be negotiating with large groups of banks on restrictive packages. By Michael Marray.
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Italian wind deals are being signed with healthy bank margins and the solar PV activity in Puglia looks set to spread to Sicily. But generous incentive regimes mask permitting issues and cooling political interest. Paul Smith reports.