ICONIC Project Finance Advisory logo ICONIC
Project Finance Advisory

FinanceBEYOND Banks

London UK Zurich CH Dubai UAE and representatives in Paris, Tokyo and Singapore

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.

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Renaud Niche Renaud Niche Global Managing Director

Trust the experienced. All things are conquered by them.

Omnia VincitExperto Credite

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.

Renaud Niche
Global Managing Director

ICONICat a glance

On the world's leading infrastructure and power projects since 1987

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.

Public and private sector, partnerships that maximise value for money

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.

Finance beyond banks

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.

Everythingwe do

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

Project finance transactions

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.

Structuring

  • Defining project phases
  • Determining the risk allocation matrix
  • Searching for partners
  • Determining the optimal deal structure
  • Financial modelling

Deal structure

  • A balance between equity, senior debt, subordinated debt, operating credit and credit enhancement

Financing

  • Obtaining letters of intent
  • Finding the best financing sources
  • Negotiating term sheets
  • Selecting underwriters

Execution

  • Developing a hedging strategy
  • Assisting with legal documentation
  • Managing the due diligence process

Refinancing

  • Defining alternative financing opportunities that create shareholder value
Public-Private Partnerships

Helping governments and corporations create partnerships that deliver high-quality public services at the best value for money.

Transaction structuring

  • Negotiating PPP terms
  • Allocating risks and responsibilities
  • Determining performance requirements, PPP length and assignment conditions
  • Determining the payment mechanism to private partners
  • Developing the financing plan and procurement process
  • Drafting the Information Memorandum
  • Reviewing credit enhancement alternatives

Bid strategy (private side)

  • Analysis of business opportunities
  • Creating a consortium
  • Developing and drafting the financing plan
  • Managing letters of interest from financiers

Transaction execution (public side)

  • Developing and implementing the procurement process
  • Drafting the EOI, RFQ and RFP documentation
  • Encouraging competition among bidders
  • Evaluating bids

Financial analysis

  • Reference bid
  • Public Sector Comparator
  • Value-for-money analysis
  • Business case and feasibility analysis

Financial close

  • Assisting in negotiations
  • Assisting with legal documentation
  • Optimising pricing
  • Transaction closing
ECA finance, trade finance, loan guarantees and insurance

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.

Products

  • Buyer credits
  • Overseas investment loans
  • Untied loans
  • Natural resource and energy loans

For exporters

  • Payment on delivery, eliminating non-payment risk
  • Access to new markets with mitigated financial risk
  • Long-term financing at attractive terms for overseas customers

For importers

  • Stable, long-term financing for significant capital goods and services
  • Risk enhancement from government-backed agencies
Policy and planning

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.

Promoting and protecting the public interest

  • Accelerating socio-economic development
  • Public participation, social and environmental safeguards
  • Land acquisition, resettlement and impact on the poor

PPP policy framework

  • Policy, regulation and regulatory bodies
  • Risk, financial and institutional governance
  • Institutional reform, training and private-sector capability

Sector planning and strategy

  • National and sub-national planning frameworks
  • Technical standards and maintenance strategies
Implementation and monitoring

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.

Five stages

  • Identification, prioritisation and selection of PPP projects
  • Due diligence and feasibility studies
  • Procurement: prequalification, bidding, bid evaluation and unsolicited bids
  • Contract award and dealing with the preferred bidder
  • Contract management during construction, operation and transfer back
Financial modelling

Models that bridge the gap between wishful thinking and responsible acting, built so that non-financial decision makers understand the parameters that drive viability.

Two models as standard

  • A graphical model for financial simulations
  • A numerical model for pre-feasibility analysis of PPP options

Covered

  • Sources of funding: sponsor equity, bank and institutional debt, user fees, public subsidies
  • Financial evaluations in nominal and real terms with user-defined escalation and indexation
Capital markets financing

Loans, debt private placement and public bonds: the right instrument for each project and corporate balance sheet, from bank debt to institutional paper.

Instruments

  • Syndicated and bilateral loans
  • Debt private placements with institutional investors
  • Public bonds and project bonds
  • Private activity bonds, ODA loans and complementary derivative products
Direct institutional investments

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.

Network

  • 600+ institutional and private investors
  • Fund managers, developers and governments
  • Lending banks originating new project loans and limited partners expanding into infrastructure loans

Howa mandate runs

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.

  1. EvaluationFeasibility, bankability and the right financing route for the project.
  2. Structuring and modellingRisk allocation, capital structure, financial model and term sheet.
  3. Raising capitalInstitutional investors, ECAs, development finance institutions, lenders and equity.
  4. Financial closeNegotiation, documentation and conditions precedent.
  5. Construction and operationsMonitoring, covenant management, refinancing and exit.
1987advising on infrastructure and power projects since
600+institutional and private investors in our network
45countries covered through local representatives
3hubs in the world's most active financial centres

Is your projectbankable?A two-minute pre-screening

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.

Indicative only. It does not replace a mandate review.

Selectedtransactions

EUR 1.7bn

Noor Ouarzazate solar complex, Morocco

Solar power · Morocco

IPFA provided model audit services, including a full tax and accounting review, and advised the lenders EIB, KfW and AfDB on an approximately EUR 1.7bn direct loan facility for the 500 MW programme developed by MASEN. The second phase combines a 200 MW parabolic-trough plant and a 100 MW solar tower, with the World Bank and its Clean Technology Fund also contributing.

Financial modellingProject finance transactions

PPP

São Paulo Metro Line 4, Brazil

Public transport · Brazil

IPFA set the procurement objectives (value for money, government control of fares, integration with network-wide ticketing), chose the bid variables and evaluation method, and prepared the terms of reference and request-for-proposal documents. The 30-year concession, awarded to the ViaQuatro consortium in 2006, was among the first PPPs under Brazil's 2004 PPP law and introduced the country's first driverless trains.

Public-Private PartnershipsPolicy and planning

25 MW

KivuWatt methane-to-power, Rwanda

Gas to power · Rwanda

IPFA advised on whether Rwanda's legal and regulatory framework could attract private investment, drafted the legislative and regulatory instruments and agreements the plant needed, and supported the Project Steering Committee in negotiations with private investors. The project extracts methane from Lake Kivu to fuel a 25 MW first phase, with expansion to 100 MW planned; financial close was in August 2011.

Policy and planningProject finance transactions

Acquisition

Marine Current Turbines and Atlantis Resources, UK

Tidal power · UK

IPFA advised on the all-share acquisition of Marine Current Turbines (MCT) by Atlantis Resources, which brought together two leading tidal technologies with MCT's seabed rights, projects, staff and intellectual property. MCT received 9.99% of Atlantis's enlarged share capital as sole consideration.

M&A

Whowe serve

We sit with project sponsors, and we act on behalf of the institutions that fund them.

Sponsors and developersBorrowers seeking new sources of liquidity beyond banks.
Governments and public bodiesPPP strategy, good governance and procurement advice.
Lending banksOriginating and syndicating new project loans.
Private equity and limited partnersExpanding into project and infrastructure loans.
Export credit and development agenciesIndependent due diligence and monitoring.
Shipowners and operatorsFleet renewal, greener tonnage and offshore assets.

Whois who

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.

Renaud Niche

Renaud Niche

Managing Director, GCC and S-EMEA Managing Partner

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.

Sal Fischer

Sal Fischer

First Degree Independent Local Representative Managing Partner

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.

Gordon Batman

Gordon Batman

Executive Vice President, Hon. Managing Partner

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.

Yiorgos Andrianopoulos

Yiorgos Andrianopoulos

CFO & Family Office Project Finance Investment Senior PFI Adviser | 3rd Party Independent Consultant

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.

Ourregions

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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