Tribuna Economica uses 3Q15 Infrastructure Fundraising review

Infrastucture fundraising hit an all-time high in the third quarter of 2015 according to Inframation Group's 3Q15 Infrastructure Fundraising review.

The infrastructure fundraising article can be found here

Highlights from the report include:

» In 1Q-3Q15 USD 151.62bn of project finance was raised to support USD 250.02bn worth of projects. This compares to USD 132.96bn raised to support USD 222.88bn in the 1Q- 3Q14 period.

» The financing comprised USD 125.33bn of loans and USD 26.29bn of capital market financing.

» EMEA accounted for 46% of transactions in the period, North America 21.9%, Asia 20.08% and Latin America 12.02%.

» A key theme of both the current and corresponding period has been the reduction in the cost of debt, as global market conditions improve, with pricing for projects down to prefinancial crisis levels.

» Banks have remained the dominant lenders, although project bonds, private placements and infrastructure debt funds have continued to emerge as alternative and complementary funding solutions.

» Clifford Chance secured the top legal advisor position by both deal count (68) and value (USD 50.33bn). Key transactions included Germany’s Tank & Rast service stations, E.ON Spain and Turkey’s Gebze-Izmir toll road.

» Arup was top technical advisor by value (USD 40.07bn) across 32 deals but Mott MacDonald secured top spot by number with 47 deals. » EY, Macquarie Capital, KPMG and PwC dominated the financial advisory table top four positions by both volume and number of transactions.

» Key transactions set to close in the final quarter include USS’ acquisition of Moto, the UK motorway service operator, Canada’s Saskatchewan Bridges P3 and the closing of the 340MW Galloper offshore wind project in Suffolk, UK.

» Fundraising for unlisted infrastructure funds continued apace in 2015 with 18 funds closing an aggregate of USD 21.70bn in the first nine months of the year. The average size of infrastructure funds closed in 2015 was USD 1.21bn with 49.6% of capital being raised by the top five largest funds, highlighting that capital is increasingly flowing to a relatively small number of experienced fund managers.

» For those GPs out on the road in 4Q15 and ‘16 the markets look increasingly competitive, particularly within the North American value-add space, where GIP, Brookfield, Alinda, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Stonepeak are all competing to secure institutional backing for their latest funds.