ICONIC Project Finance Advisory
Capital-intensive projects increasingly require funding that the banking sector alone cannot provide. Since 1987, ICONIC Project Finance Advisory has structured and arranged financing for infrastructure, energy, maritime and public-private partnership transactions, acting for sponsors, governments, lenders and export credit agencies, with access to more than 600 institutional and private investors. An independent, director-led practice in London, Zurich and Dubai.
London UK Zurich CH Dubai UAE and representatives in Paris, Tokyo and Singapore
Renaud Niche
Global Managing Director
Trust the experienced. All things are conquered by them.
In 1987 we closed our first project financing. The sponsor had a sound asset, a signed offtake contract and not a single bank willing to lend against it on a stand-alone basis. What got the deal done was not a new instrument. It was that the people in the room had been in that room before, and the lenders knew it. Imagine: today that distant, tiny sponsor is valued at USD 0.5 trillion and commands half of the Asian energy sector.
That is where our motto comes from. Virgil wrote experto credite, believe the one who has been there, and omnia vincit, all things are conquered. We joined the two deliberately: trust the experienced, and all things are conquered by them.
Nearly four decades later it still describes how we work. When a government procures its first public-private partnership, when a shipowner must finance greener tonnage in a market that has stopped lending, when a sponsor has to bring institutional investors to a project they have never seen, the question is always the same: who has done this before, and can we trust them?
Our answer is the team. Directors who have structured, lent, negotiated, restructured and closed across three decades and five continents, and the relationships that come with that: export credit agencies, development finance institutions, lenders and more than 600 institutional and private investors who take our call because of the deals we have closed together.
Experience is not a promise that a transaction will be easy. It is the reason it closes.
Renaud Niche
Global Managing Director
Our bloodline is strongly related with project sponsors, while we act on behalf of export credit agencies, rating agencies, development finance institutions and debt providers. Our objective is to protect and add value to deals by helping stakeholders identify and mitigate fundamental investment risks, through unbiased due diligence, implementation and operations reviews.
We support governments, institutional banks, lenders, private equity funds, sponsors and contractors in developing their own PPP capabilities and markets: identifying the full range of PPP strategies, defining the role of public governance and devising the principles of PPP good governance.
Strategically located in the most active financial centres of the world, serving business finance, project finance and shipping finance. A wide network of local representatives and independent consultants, with strategic initiatives in Europe, the Middle East and GCC, CIS, Latin America, Asia and North America, equips us for our clients' cross-border challenges.
Two proprietary ™Phylums of Services: groups of inter-related project, corporate and business finance offerings. Choose a group, then open a service for the full scope.
Advising governments, sponsors, lenders and contractors on large-scale infrastructure, from project evaluation to procurement, financial close, construction and operations.
PowerSolarWind farmsWaterTransportationSocial infrastructureReal estate
Structured large-scale project finance deals. ICONIC can assist you in achieving your aspirations through an investment management approach that integrates strategy, transactions, transformation and technology. Our methodology ensures seamless alignment between finance design and project delivery throughout the entire process, enhancing effectiveness and driving successful investment outcomes.
Helping governments and corporations create partnerships that deliver high-quality public services at the best value for money.
Cross-border funding with improved terms through government-backed export credit agencies. ECA teams in Dubai, London, Zurich, Tokyo, Singapore and Mexico City, partnering with around 30 ECAs worldwide.
Preparing public authorities to play their role in PPPs: policy frameworks, planning and protection of the public interest before legal, contractual and implementation work begins.
A disciplined, project-level approach across the five key stages of a PPP, from identification to the transfer of the facilities back to the public authority.
Models that bridge the gap between wishful thinking and responsible acting, built so that non-financial decision makers understand the parameters that drive viability.
Tighter regulation, limited bank lending and unsettled investors have changed ship finance. ICONIC taps alternative sources of capital for owners, banks, bondholders and investors, with transactions covering $27B of capital.
ShippingPorts and logisticsFPSOs and offshoreGreener ships
Long-term funding for new and used vessels, with charter fees as the principal source of repayment and collateral structured around the shipbuilding and charter agreements.
Arranger and capital raiser for investment projects in shipping, FPSOs and offshore, from single projects to complex solutions for major companies.
Specialised maritime finance in shipping, ports, logistics and offshore: structures that let fleets meet tighter environmental regulation and new fuels without losing their balance sheets.
Options beyond the hostile bank strategies of the past: mergers, acquisitions and restructuring, and above all off-balance-sheet alternatives.
More than three decades advising oil and gas majors, governments, energy companies, investors and lenders on the development, financing and acquisition of oil, gas and LNG interests.
UpstreamLNGRefiningPetrochemicalsPipelinesOil servicesPower and renewables
Strategic joint ventures, acquisitions and disposals, green- and brownfield developments, financing and business restructurings across the value chain.
Representing governments on regulatory regimes and advising state-owned companies on the midstream distribution, sale and regulatory treatment of natural gas.
From internal growth to advanced M&A deals, using advanced mathematics, established analytics, proven experience and applied techniques to find the appropriate scale of operation.
CorporatesPrivate equityFamily businessesState-owned enterprises
Corporate M&A transactions. By leveraging a unique blend of insight garnered from industry expertise and experience cultivated through numerous engagements, our M&A services teams are dedicated to the comprehensive definition and refinement of business growth strategies across a spectrum of transactions and capital management events.
Accelerating value creation in a rapidly evolving business environment.
Loans, debt private placement and public bonds: the right instrument for each project and corporate balance sheet, from bank debt to institutional paper.
New alternative sources of financing. Approaching and pitching institutional investors is our way to tackle structural weaknesses in the banking sector which mainly lead to restrained credit growth. Discover how ICONIC expertise may unleash the power of your infrastructure investment and also redefine sustainability to safeguard existing assets and cultivate new value streams.
Our objective is to protect and add value to a deal by helping every stakeholder identify and mitigate the fundamental investment risks, through unbiased due diligence, implementation and operations reviews.
Answer eight questions about your project. You get an immediate go / no-go view, the IPFA service that fits, and a ready-to-send brief for our directors. Nothing is stored until you choose to send it.
Best-fit IPFA service:
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Indicative mandates from our track record in shipping finance, infrastructure, power and transport across Asia-Pacific and beyond.
ICONIC Project Finance (DXB) advised the Government of Mongolia on the US$120m project financing of the 55 MW Sainshand Shalkhin Park wind farm in the Gobi desert, shaped in consultation with the local communities.
Joint venture companies of NYK Line, Sovcomflot Group and Samudera Shipping Line received two non-recourse credit facilities totalling US$155m, extended by MUFG Bank as facility and security agent and the Development Bank of Japan.
ICONIC Project Finance (DXB) advised a consortium of underwriters on US$500m of improvements to road and bridge connections, flood control and sanitation in Vietnam, unlocking new pools of global institutional long-term capital.
ICONIC Project Finance (DXB) represented Taiyo Life Insurance Company, a Japanese institutional investor, as sponsor, manager and subordinated note investor of the green loan that exclusively financed the building of NYK's first methanol-fuelled chemical tanker.
ICONIC Project Finance (DXB) advised the underwriters on the US$246m loan to Yichang Municipal Government to modernise logistics along the Yangtze River Economic Belt, one of China's major strategic initiatives.
ICONIC Project Finance (DXB) advised Chinese shipyards Hudong-Zhonghua and Shanghai Jiangnan-Changxing on the working capital for a range of innovative LNG-fuelled newbuilds, including nine 23,000 TEU containerships with 18,600 cbm membrane-type LNG tanks for CMA CGM.
ICONIC Project Finance (DXB) advised Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co on the shipping finance of two LNG-fuelled Ro-Ro vessels, the first overseas car freighters in the world to be LNG-powered.
Jinling Shipyard (Jiangsu) received the shipbuilding contract for the Ro-Ro ECO Barcelona owned by Grimaldi Euromed. The EUR 35m loan facility financing the acquisition of the new vessel was offered by CaixaBank.
Malaysia's Ministry of Finance approved Malaysia Airports Holdings' proposal to proceed with the phased expansion of Penang International Airport, a mid-sized but among the busiest airports in Malaysia.
We sit with project sponsors, and we act on behalf of the institutions that fund them.
Our leadership team is the body and soul of IPFA: finance professionals with first-rate track records and deal execution experience, used to leading multidisciplinary teams on the most complex shipping finance, infrastructure and PPP/PFI transactions.
Over 25 years in environmental engineering and infrastructure project finance across construction, utilities and real estate, with a track record on leading PPP projects in the GCC, North America and Europe.
Asset finance originator, structurer and executioner. Managing Director of Due Diligence and Advisory Services, based in Tokyo and Hong Kong, with deep relationships among institutional investors and investment banks in energy, infrastructure, shipping and renewables.
Fulbright-certified strategic planner. Led Chicago's first activity-based travel demand model and its first 30-year transportation plan, and spearheaded successful local ballot measures for transport funding.
Chartered European Engineer (EUR-ING) and EU-chartered financial analyst (ACCA). With IPFA since 2009, he has turned a long-term CFO role into international project finance advisory.
Three hubs in the world's most active financial centres, local representatives in Europe, the Middle East and GCC, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. Pick your region on the map for the right address.
Middle East and GCC · always.here@ipfa.finance
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Market notes, deals we can talk about and news from the three hubs.
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Market notes on infrastructure, maritime and ECA finance, and the deals we can talk about. One e-mail a month, no selling.
