Financing and ownership structures in international project finance

Abstract

In the past twenty years there has been a new wave of global interest in project finance as a tool for financing capital-intensive projects all around the world. The crucial elements in structuring a project finance transaction are: the risk allocation process, the determination of the best type of ownership structure, and the development of a complete and integrated set of financial and contractual arrangements. This thesis examines the ownership and financing structures in International Project Finance. Selection of the form of business organization for a project is an important step in project development and depends on a variety of business, legal, accounting, tax and regulatory factors. This thesis presents four forms of ownership structure most frequently used for developing a project and highlights the reasons of selecting one of them. The variety of sources of funds, with a trend towards the increasing development of sophisticated capital market instruments, provides project sponsors with flexibility to select the appropriate structure to finance a project. This thesis presents the three types of capital used in project financing and details the alternatives for financing a project from its development phase to its operating phase showing that the project financing is a dynamic process. After having developed a basic framework for structuring an international project finance transaction, this thesis ends by exposing projects financed on a project-financing basis. These projects are characterized by some specific features, such as refinancing prior to project completion or use of capital market financing.