The Raising Project Finance Handbook by David Rose will save time, energy and money
A new publication, The RAISING PROJECT FINANCE Handbook, shares decades of hands-on experience in project financing with those just starting out on the journey. This can be both exhausting and demoralising for project principals as no guidance has yet been produced for them on the content, structure and other submission requirements of the private capital sources that now dominate the global project finance market. The author claims that the book will save project principals time, money and frustration and significantly reduce the number of ‘declines’ from financiers.
The Handbook also guides the reader towards the different financier types now acting as channels for the $trillions of private capital finding its way into the global project finance market. Since the 2008 banking crisis, these have now all but completely superseded traditional banks and include alternative investment funds, asset managers, hedge funds, private debt and equity funds, mandated lenders, wealth managers, private banks, family offices, U/HNWI’s and others.
The book clarifies the often misunderstood principle that project finance, a specialist area of corporate finance, is broadly defined as ‘funding provided against contracted revenues from the built project’. Genuine project finance should therefore leave the sponsor company and its principals free and clear of any liabilities even if financed to anywhere between the 90 and 100 per cent level, which is now becoming widely available.
The private capital providers now dominating the market demand specific submission criteria. The book explains how to ensure the project is genuinely ‘shovel ready’, when to start the search for finance, what documentation is required, how to assemble the project plan and when and how to present it to financiers.
Author David Rose, now semi-retired after four decades of capital raising, wrote the Handbook after many years of receiving project financing proposals, the overwhelming majority of which fell far short of what private capital providers, the default financing source for most projects, need. He said: “No matter if it’s a $10 million boutique hotel, a $500 million waste-to-energy plant or a $5 billion infrastructure project, anywhere in the world, project financiers’ requirements are consistent and unchanging. The Handbook provides the structure and content needed for the submission to be taken seriously by the new financing sources which are, largely, managing $trillions of private capital, or dry powder, seeking out project financing opportunities. The book is written in a jargon-free, no-nonsense style that project principals and their advisors will appreciate.”
For Project Financiers, The RAISING PROJECT FINANCE Handbook, is a valuable ‘go to’ resource to point the majority of applicants who do not meet their intake criteria. These include a shortfall in supporting documentation, poorly presented project plan and executive summary, weak financials, lightweight or non-existent construction, engineering, off-take and other contracts and overlooked permits and permissions.
It is also often the case that project principals leave the finance raising until the very last task, not realising that it can take months to identify a suitable (and interested) financier and then more months for the financing to be structured and closed. The book explains how it is important to start work on seeking out the right financier at the earliest stages of project development and how to avoid the joker-brokers in the market, who can destroy any chance of ever getting the project financed.
Also, projects are often presented to financiers without the necessary financial resource to cover third party costs which need to be spent on due diligence, surveys, legal and other expenses. The book presents this persistent problem as a unique opportunity for Family Offices and U/HNWI’s.
The fragmented and inefficient nature of the market is also covered and an opportunity is provided for Project Financiers, Intermediaries and Project Principals to register their interest at the new Project Finance Exchange (PFX), now being developed as a buy/sell ‘hub’ for the market.
Further info: Search Amazon for ‘The Raising Project Finance Handbook’.
