UNDERSTANDING POWER PROJECT FINANCING

Understanding
Power Project
Financing

Funded By

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Understanding Power Project Financing – Version 1.0

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or ALSF at [email protected] with any questions regarding this publication
Understanding
Understanding
Power
Power Project
Project
Financing
Financing
Understanding Power Project Financing – Version 1.0

Published Under the Creative Commons

Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0
International License (cc by no sa )

PDF and EPUB Editions Available Here:

Please contact Mohamed Badissy (CLDP) at [email protected]

or ALSF at [email protected] with any questions regarding this publication
C O N T E N T S

FOREWORD

1. INTRODUCTION

2. CONTEXT
2.1. Introduction 11
2.2. Evolving Market Structures 12
2.3. Creating an Enabling Environment 15

3. FINANCING STRUCTURES
3.1. Introduction 20
3.2. Project Finance Essentials 31
3.3. Sources of Financing 37
3.4. Particular Aspects of Project Finance 45
3.5. Stakeholders 52
3.6. Summary of Key Points 54

4. RISK ASSESSMENT, PRICING AND ALLOCATION

4.1. Introduction 59
4.2. Risk Assessment 60
4.3. Risk Pricing and Allocation 66
4.5. Managing Political and Payment Risks 71
4.6. Summary of Key Points 73
5. FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS SUPPORTED BY CREDIT
SUPPORT
5.1. Introduction 76
5.2. Recurring Payment Obligations under the PPA 78
5.3. Other Extraordinary Payment Obligations 82
5.4. Termination and Transfer 88
5.5. Summary of Key Points 93

6. SOVEREIGN SUPPORT
6.1. Introduction 95
6.2. Sovereign Guarantees 97
6.3. Letters of Comfort and Letters of Support 100
6.4. Put and Call Option Agreements 102
6.5. Liquidity Letters of Credit 105
6.6. Liquidity Escrow Accounts 109
6.7. Debt Sustainability 111
6.8. Host Government Considerations 118
6.9. Summary of Key Points 125
7. THIRD PARTY CREDIT SUPPORT AND RISK
MITIGATION
7.1. Introduction 128
7.2. DFI Guarantees 129
7.3. DFI-Guaranteed LC Structures 137
7.4. Political Risk Insurance 144
7.5. A/B Loan Syndication 148
7.6. Summary of Key Points 150

APPENDIX
Glossary 152
Online Resources 166
Acronyms 171
Foreword
Foreword
Contributing Authors

1
 FOREWORD

Foreword
The crit​i​cal role of ac​cess to power in eco​nomic growth is per​haps one of
the few core el​e​ments of eco​nomic de​vel​op​ment that all econ​o​mists can
agree upon. There are few re​sources that can ben​e​fit the pub​lic as broadly
and as ef​fec​tively as ac​cess to power. From schools to hos​pi​tals and homes
to of​fices, the ex​is​tence of plen​ti​ful, af​ford​able and re​li​able power is the
cor​ner​stone of growth in the mod​ern era.

With this re​al​ity in mind, it should come as no sur​prise to you, the reader,
that there is an in​tense ef​fort by gov​ern​ments, in​ter​na​tional or​gan​i​sa​tions,
and the pri​vate sec​tor to drive in​vest​ment into power pro​jects in both un​-
der-served power mar​kets in de​vel​op​ing coun​tries and re​mote mar​kets in
de​vel​oped coun​tries. The in​ten​sity of the drive to elec​trify the world has
taken on an even greater di​men​sion in re​cent years with the re​al​i​sa​tion
that ac​cess to power can also serve the equally im​por​tant goal of a re​duc​-
tion in car​bon emis​sions if much of the new in​vest​ment is di​rected away
from con​ven​tional fuel sources to​wards cleaner sources of power. The re​-
sult is a world where power sec​tor growth has the po​ten​tial to im​prove the
con​di​tion of both our lives and our planet.

De​spite the tremen​dous po​ten​tial that could be un​locked through greater

in​vest​ment in power pro​jects, there are still sig​nif​i​cant bar​ri​ers to their de​-
vel​op​ment. As was dis​cussed in our pre​vi​ous pub​li​ca​tion "Un​der​stand​ing
Power Pur​chase Agree​ments", one bar​rier to pro​ject de​vel​op​ment is the
draft​ing and ne​go​ti​a​tion of the com​plex con​tract that sits at the core of pri​-
vate power pro​jects, the Power Pur​chase Agree​ment (PPA). In that book,
we noted that a PPA can only func​tion if there is a mu​tu​ally agree​able al​lo​-
ca​tion of both risks and ben​e​fits be​tween the gov​ern​ment, the off​taker, the
power pro​ject de​vel​oper, and the pro​ject lenders. This new hand​book is in​-
tended to serve as a com​pan​ion to the PPA hand​book and ad​dresses an​-
other crit​i​cal bar​rier to power pro​ject de​vel​op​ment, namely ar​rang​ing the
fi​nanc​ing of a power pro​ject. The task of ar​rang​ing fi​nanc​ing for a power
pro​ject, with its mix of in​vestors, lenders, risks and mit​i​gants, is in the eyes
of our group of au​thors, as com​plex as the ne​go​ti​a​tion of the PPA, hence
the need for an ad​di​tional hand​book.

2
 FOREWORD

As with our pre​vi​ous hand​book, the in​tent here is to share with you an
overview of the chal​lenges, strate​gies, and nu​ances of pri​vate fi​nanc​ing of a
power pro​ject. As ex​plained in the chap​ter on power mar​kets, many coun​-
tries, in​clud​ing some de​vel​oped coun​tries, are still fac​ing chal​lenges in
tran​si​tion​ing to​wards a more pre​dictable and com​pet​i​tive power mar​ket.
In ad​di​tion to the mar​ket chal​lenges, the chap​ter on fi​nance struc​tures ex​-
plains how the ever grow​ing bur​den on the na​tional bud​gets in many de​-
vel​op​ing coun​tries has re​duced the abil​ity of the state to de​velop pro​jects
di​rectly and has in​stead ne​ces​si​tated a shift to​wards pri​vately de​vel​oped
and fi​nanced power pro​jects. The issue of risk in power pro​jects is again al​-
lo​cated its own chap​ter, with more at​ten​tion given this time to the pric​ing
and al​lo​ca​tion of risk. The PPA con​tin​ues to play an im​por​tant role, with
the chap​ter on fi​nan​cial oblig​a​tions under the PPA set​ting the scope of fi​-
nan​cial com​mit​ments that are nec​es​sary for a power pro​ject. Per​haps the
most crit​i​cal in​sight pro​vided by this hand​book is con​tained in the final
two chap​ters, which lay out the op​tions for gov​ern​ments as they seek to
sup​port in​vestors in power pro​jects by re​duc​ing the credit risks that are
often the sin​gle great​est bar​rier to fi​nanc​ing.

This hand​book is the prod​uct of months of con​sul​ta​tions be​tween stake​-

hold​ers from both the pub​lic sec​tor and the pri​vate sec​tor. Those con​sul​ta​-
tions helped to es​tab​lish the un​der​stand​ing of the pit​falls of pro​ject fi​nanc​-
ing in de​vel​op​ing mar​kets. The cre​ative so​lu​tions de​vel​oped through close
co​op​er​a​tion be​tween gov​ern​ments, in​ter​na​tional in​sti​tu​tions, and the pri​-
vate sec​tor, formed the man​date for the draft​ing of a hand​book on power
pro​ject fi​nanc​ing. The ful​fil​ment of that man​date through the hand​book
that you see be​fore you is the fruit of the labour of a group of au​thors that
is as di​verse in its ex​per​tise as it is in its back​grounds and per​spec​tives. Our
group of au​thors came to the table as equals, each do​nat​ing their time on a
pro-bono basis and each ready to both share and lis​ten in order to pro​duce
a re​source that is greater than the sum of our ex​pe​ri​ence. By shar​ing in​-
sights from gov​ern​ments, de​vel​op​ment banks, pri​vate banks, lead​ing law
firms and sea​soned ne​go​tia​tors, we hope that we are able to pro​vide you
with a broad and bal​anced un​der​stand​ing of the com​plex​i​ties be​hind pro​-
ject fi​nanc​ing.

3
 FOREWORD

The mon​u​men​tal task of gath​er​ing, or​ga​niz​ing and dis​till​ing the input

from our dis​tin​guished group of au​thors could not have been pos​si​ble if it
were not for the bril​liance of the Book Sprints draft​ing method (http://​
www.​booksprints.​net). The Book Sprints process al​lows for the de​vel​op​ing
of a fully con​cep​tu​alised, drafted and edited book in just five days. You
should find it as no sur​prise that those five days were filled with an​i​mated
con​ver​sa​tions, mad scrib​bles on an army of post-it notes, and end​less hours
scru​ti​n​is​ing text to en​sure its ac​cu​racy and ac​ces​si​bil​ity. We were pleas​-
antly sur​prised at both the level of com​mon​al​ity amongst us and the ded​i​-
ca​tion we all shared to this im​por​tant pro​ject. The out​come is a com​bi​na​-
tion of in​for​ma​tion and in​sight that re​flects our col​lec​tive knowl​edge
rather than the per​sonal opin​ions of the au​thors or the in​sti​tu​tions that
they rep​re​sent.

We would like to thank our Book Sprint fa​cil​i​ta​tor Laia Ros Gasch for her
per​sis​tent guid​ance and end​less pa​tience. We would also like to thank il​lus​-
tra​tor Hen​rik van Leeuwen for his un​fail​ing abil​ity to trans​late our scrib​-
bles into works of in​for​ma​tional art. We are also deeply ap​pre​cia​tive of
Book Sprints' off​site team, in​clud​ing Raewyn Whyte (proof​reader) and
Juan Car​los Gutiérrez Bar​quero and Julien Taquet (Tech​ni​cal Sup​port).

We are es​pe​cially thank​ful for the strate​gic plan​ners that helped con​ceive
this pro​ject: Mo​hamed Badissy, Nnamdi Ezera, Sh​eryl We​is​flog and Mo​-
hammed Lo​raoui (Com​mer​cial Law De​vel​op​ment Pro​gram); Amir Shaikh
and Toyin Ojo (African Legal Sup​port Fa​cil​ity); and Adam Hyde, Ka​te​rina
Michai​lidi and Mark Bro​ker​ing (Book Sprints). The au​thors would also
like to thank the gen​er​ous fund​ing and lo​gis​tics sup​port from Power
Africa, the United States Agency for In​ter​na​tional De​vel​op​ment and the
African Legal Sup​port Fa​cil​ity, with​out which nei​ther the con​sul​ta​tions
nor the Book Sprint would have been pos​si​ble.

In order to con​tinue the tra​di​tion of open source knowl​edge shar​ing that

was so well re​ceived after the pub​li​ca​tion of Un​der​stand​ing Power Pur​chase
Agree​ments, this hand​book is is​sued under the Cre​ative Com​mons At​tri​bu​-
tion-Non​Com​mer​cial-Share​Alike 4.0 In​ter​na​tional Li​cense (CC BY NO
SA). In se​lect​ing this pub​li​ca​tion li​cense, we wel​come any​one to copy, ex​-

4
 FOREWORD

Bridg​ing the gap be​tween the promises of a more elec​tri​fied world and the
de​liv​ery on those promises is the core mis​sion of every sin​gle per​son in our
group of au​thors. Much as we brought to​gether gov​ern​ments, pri​vate com​-
pa​nies, pri​vate banks, de​vel​op​ment banks, and lead​ing legal ex​perts to
share their best strate​gies for se​cur​ing the fi​nanc​ing nec​es​sary to go from
dream to re​al​ity, we hope that oth​ers will lever​age this hand​book in their
own drive to bring elec​tric​ity to all who want it. We are ho​n​oured to con​-
tribute to this noble mis​sion and thank you for tak​ing the time to con​sider
our con​tri​bu​tion.

Sin​cerely,

The Con​tribut​ing Au​thors

5
 FOREWORD

Contributing Authors
Mohamed Badissy Rhoda Limbani Mshana
Attorney Advisor (International) Principal Results Specialist
U.S. Department of Commerce African Development Bank
United States Côte D'Ivoire

Lucy Chege Subha Nagarajan

General Manager – Infrastructure Finance (Energy, Managing Director – Africa
Environment, PPPs) Overseas Private Investment Corporation
Development Bank of Southern Africa United States
South Africa

Patrick M. Dougherty Toyin Ojo

Senior Counsel Senior Legal Counsel
The World Bank African Legal Support Facility
United States Côte D'Ivoire

Alex Evans Dozie Okpalaobieri

Deputy Associate General Counsel SME Finance Energy Adviser
Overseas Private Investment Corporation Ministry of Finance
United States Nigeria

Nnaemeka Ewelukwa Franca Sandham

General Counsel and Company Secretary Power & Infrastructure Finance
Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc Investec Bank Limited
Nigeria South Africa

Jay Govender Kaushik Ray

Director – Projects and Infrastructure Partner
Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Inc. Trinity International LLP
South Africa United Kingdom

Tony Iskarpatyoti Tim Scales

Vice President Partner
Nexant, Inc. Allen & Overy LLP
United States United Kingdom

Vibhuti Jain Amir Shaikh

Senior Project Finance Advisor Chief Legal Counsel
USAID/Power Africa African Legal Support Facility
United States/South Africa Côte D'Ivoire

Ryan T. Ketchum Neil van Niekerk

Partner Managing Director and Head – Africa Project
Hunton & Williams LLP & Export Finance
United Kingdom Standard Chartered Bank
South Africa

6
1. Introduction

7
 INTRODUCTION

1.1. Introduction
Bank​able trans​ac​tions are cen​tral to the de​vel​op​ment of the power sec​tor
in many emerg​ing economies.

How​ever, im​ple​men​ta​tion of power trans​ac​tions in these coun​tries is

some​times pro​tracted. The two key rea​sons cited most often for de​lay​ing
ne​go​ti​a​tions to reach fi​nan​cial close are:
• eq​ui​table risk al​lo​ca​tion (who takes the risk and why?); and
• short​age of credit en​hance​ments (what can be done by par​ties, in​clud​ing
gov​ern​ments, to mit​i​gate the risks?).

For ex​am​ple, when the issue of a “sov​er​eign guar​an​tee” arises it can cause
de​bate, lead​ing to a po​ten​tial im​passe.

This hand​book aims to serve as a prac​ti​cal re​source for gov​ern​ments, util​i​-

ties, in​vestors, and other in​ter​ested stake​hold​ers by point​ing to each party’s
chal​lenges and out​lin​ing what mo​ti​vates the de​ci​sion-mak​ing process. As
such, this book seeks to pro​vide a roadmap for nav​i​gat​ing through this im​-
passe.

The hand​book starts out with an overview of the dif​fer​ent fi​nanc​ing al​ter​-
na​tives for power trans​ac​tions and the ad​van​tages and dis​ad​van​tages of
each. The text then pro​ceeds into a deeper analy​sis of the me​chan​ics of
pro​ject fi​nance and its rel​e​vance to im​ple​ment​ing power pro​jects.

There​after it delves into some of the key chal​lenges which in​clude:

• the role of and ra​tio​nale for credit en​hance​ment in mit​i​gat​ing per​ceived
and ac​tual risks in order to at​tract pub​lic and pri​vate sources of fi​nanc​-
ing and;
• sov​er​eign and non-sov​er​eign forms of credit en​hance​ment and their re​-
spec​tive me​chan​ics and im​pli​ca​tions. This fur​ther in​cludes a dis​cus​sion
on risk scop​ing and as​sess​ment, risk al​lo​ca​tion, and the im​pact of risk
on pric​ing, as well as a de​tailed con​sid​er​a​tion of the key stake​hold​ers.

8
 INTRODUCTION

The Critical Role of the Government in Delivering an

Independent Power Project
The hand​book fo​cuses on a spe​cific sce​nario in the power fi​nanc​ing con​-
text: pro​jects that in​volve an In​de​pen​dent Power Pro​ducer (IPP). While
the party pro​vid​ing the power may be pri​vate, with in​ter​ests and ex​pec​ta​-
tions dis​tinct from the gov​ern​ment, the gov​ern​ment con​tin​ues to play a
fun​da​men​tal role in the deal. The gov​ern​ment may have ini​ti​ated the pro​-
ject, through a ten​der process or oth​er​wise, and one arm of gov​ern​ment is
usu​ally the li​cens​ing and ap​proval au​thor​ity for con​struc​tion, op​er​a​tion,
and clear​ances. In ad​di​tion, the gov​ern​ment is often a con​trac​tual party to a
power pur​chase agree​ment, as in the case of a state-owned off​taker, and is
the party that main​tains key req​ui​site and re​lated in​fra​struc​ture, such as the
trans​mis​sion and dis​tri​b​u​tion net​work or fuel sup​ply. As a pol​icy maker,
the gov​ern​ment sets the con​text for the ease and lo​gis​tics of in​vest​ment in
many re​spects. Also, as this hand​book will high​light, given the gov​ern​-
ment’s unique po​si​tion and role in pri​vate power deals in chal​leng​ing mar​-
kets, the gov​ern​ment is a cen​tral fig​ure and well-po​si​tioned to pro​vide
sup​port through credit en​hance​ment.

This Handbook in Context

This hand​book is a fol​low-on to a prior hand​book ti​tled "Un​der​stand​ing
Power Pur​chase Agree​ments". Both hand​books ad​dress dif​fer​ent as​pects of
power trans​ac​tions. The first hand​book fo​cused on the me​chan​ics and
specifics of a power pur​chase agree​ment (PPA) and its role in at​tract​ing
power fi​nanc​ing for an IPP. In con​trast, this hand​book fo​cuses on the fi​-
nanc​ing struc​tures and mech​a​nisms that can be em​ployed to fi​nance IPP
power pro​jects.

9
2. Context
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Evolving Market Structures
2.3. Creating an Enabling Environment

10
 CONTEXT

2.1. Introduction
The power sec​tor is a fun​da​men​tal build​ing block for eco​nomic ad​vance​-
ment in any coun​try. Power is a crit​i​cal input for the suc​cess​ful growth and
func​tion​ing of a coun​try’s econ​omy, across all its sec​tors, and thus for job
cre​ation. Elec​tric​ity de​mand is closely cor​re​lated with GDP growth and
other so​cio-po​lit​i​cal ad​vance​ments. As such, power in​vest​ments demon​-
strate a clear and quan​tifi​able eco​nomic re​turn upon com​ple​tion and com​-
mis​sion​ing of the fi​nanced power pro​jects, with a re​sul​tant mul​ti​plier ef​-
fect on the broader econ​omy. Suc​cess​fully fi​nanced power trans​ac​tions will
thus have broad-reach​ing de​vel​op​ment im​pact.

These trans​ac​tions re​quire sub​stan​tial and long-term in​vest​ments which

have long re​pay​ment pe​ri​ods. They often re​quire highly tech​ni​cal and spe​-
cialised knowl​edge and ex​per​tise to pre​pare and im​ple​ment. Fur​ther​more,
the power sec​tor is uniquely re​liant on phys​i​cal trans​mis​sion and dis​tri​b​u​-
tion in​fra​struc​ture, a costly un​der​tak​ing to con​struct and main​tain, as dis​-
tinct from other in​fra​struc​ture sec​tors, such as telecom​mu​ni​ca​tions. There​-
fore, there is a need to de​velop an en​abling in​vest​ment en​vi​ron​ment which
will be sus​tain​able in the long-run. This, in it​self, can be a long-term en​-
deav​our. As such, pro​jects un​der​taken in the near- to medium-term often
ne​ces​si​tate the in​clu​sion of cer​tain credit en​hance​ments.

In this con​text, even as gov​ern​ments begin to open the sec​tor for pri​vate
par​tic​i​pa​tion, they are re​lied upon for leg​isla​tive sup​port, reg​u​la​tion, li​-
cens​ing, over​sight, and an​cil​lary mar​ket func​tions such as fuel sup​ply
and/or trans​mis​sion. They are re​lied upon to cre​ate an en​abling en​vi​ron​-
ment that fos​ters the evo​lu​tion of their power sec​tors. While a great deal
of time and ef​fort is in​volved in such en​deav​ours, by cre​at​ing an en​abling
en​vi​ron​ment, a gov​ern​ment can in​crease the like​li​hood of reap​ing the ben​-
e​fits of in​de​pen​dent power pro​jects, with the main ad​van​tage being that
the up-front cost of the pro​ject is pro​vided through pri​vate sec​tor-led fi​-
nanc​ing and not from the sov​er​eign's bal​ance sheet.

11
 CONTEXT

2.2. Evolving Market Structures

Private Capital, Public Good
Com​pet​ing de​mands on gov​ern​ment funds and lim​ited fi​nan​cial sol​vency in
the power sec​tor have con​strained the abil​ity of many emerg​ing mar​ket
gov​ern​ments to in​vest in ad​di​tional power gen​er​a​tion ca​pac​ity. This has oc​-
curred against the back​drop of an unmet and grow​ing de​mand for power.

Gov​ern​ments bal​ance po​lit​i​cal, eco​nomic, and fis​cal con​sid​er​at​ ions while

at​tempt​ing to ad​dress the needs of their power sec​tor. Gov​ern​ments are
often un​able to fund the nec​es​sary cap​i​tal ex​pen​di​tures re​quired to meet
their power in​fra​struc​ture needs. Part​ner​ing with the pri​vate sec​tor of​fers
gov​ern​ments the op​por​tu​nity to ac​cess greater fi​nan​cial re​sources and
tech​ni​cal ex​per​tise. The in​te​gra​tion of the pri​vate sec​tor into the power
sec​tor shifts not only the fi​nanc​ing bur​den away from gov​ern​ment, but
also some of the risks such as pro​ject prepa​ra​tion, im​ple​men​ta​tion, and op​-
er​at​ ion.

Power mar​kets typ​i​cally start out as fully gov​ern​ment fi​nanced, owned and
con​trolled. As noted in Sec​tion 3.1 (Overview of Power Fi​nanc​ing Al​ter​na​-
tives), this model re​quires less co​or​di​na​tion by the gov​ern​ment with var​i​-
ous third party fun​ders, but it also re​quires the gov​ern​ment to add more fi​-
nanc​ing oblig​at​ ions to its bal​ance sheet. This can limit the avail​able cash
re​serves or ex​ter​nal fi​nanc​ing that a gov​ern​ment can chan​nel to other cap​i​-
tal-in​ten​sive sec​tors that it may need to sup​port. Con​se​quently, many gov​-
ern​ments have deemed it ben​e​fi​cial to pri​va​tise cer​tain rev​enue-gen​er​at​ing
power as​sets (pri​mar​ily gen​er​at​ ion as​sets), as op​posed to so​cial sec​tors such
as ed​uc​ a​tion and health. In this way, the gov​ern​ment is able to ben​e​fit from
fi​nanc​ing struc​tures en​cour​ag​ing pri​vate cap​i​tal that help to free up its bal​-
ance sheet for other pri​or​i​ties.

The pro​vi​sion of power, de​spite grow​ing pri​vate par​tic​i​pa​tion, is a pub​lic

good that often re​quires the ac​tive en​gage​ment of gov​ern​ment. The level
of en​gage​ment ex​ists in vary​ing de​grees in dif​fer​ent coun​tries.

12
 EVOLVING MARKET STRUCTURES

Towards a More Developed Power Sector

Within emerg​ing mar​kets, there is a wide con​tin​uum along which mar​kets
evolve. On one end of the con​tin​uum, there are mar​kets that are tightly
con​trolled by gov​ern​ments, with sin​gle off​tak​ers and lim​ited ac​cess to the
grid. On the other end of the con​tin​uum, there are coun​tries that allow for
spot mar​ket auc​tions, wheel​ing arrange​ments and mul​ti​ple off​tak​ers. The
more a gov​ern​ment ad​vances along this con​tin​uum, the less gov​ern​ment
sup​port is re​quired.

As the mar​ket struc​ture evolves, pri​vate par​tic​i​pants gain com​fort that

there is greater trans​parency and a more ef​fi​cient al​lo​ca​tion of re​sources.
As the mar​ket ma​tures, it will more likely at​tract greater pri​vate in​vest​-
ment and be bet​ter po​si​tioned to weather most volatil​ity that may be gen​-
er​ated by macro​eco​nomic events and trends. Even​tu​ally, the mar​ket will
move to​wards be​com​ing self-sus​tain​ing and fi​nan​cially sol​vent. As that
hap​pens, the gov​ern​ment will still play a crit​i​cal role, but may no longer be
re​quired to sub​sidise the cost of power pro​duc​tion. How​ever, until the full
ben​e​fits of pri​vati​sa​tion and lib​er​al​i​sa​tion have, or are per​ceived to have,
pro​duced a rel​a​tively de​vel​oped power mar​ket, the gov​ern​ment may still be
called upon to pro​vide fi​nan​cial sup​port or guar​an​tees to that mar​ket in a
num​ber of ways.

In ad​di​tion to the many macro​eco​nomic fac​tors to be con​sid​ered, the fol​-

low​ing il​lus​tra​tion de​scribes a few key fea​tures of power mar​kets that are
fur​ther de​vel​oped and re​quire less gov​ern​ment sup​port.

13
 CONTEXT

Evolving Power Markets

14
 CONTEXT

2.3. Creating an Enabling

Environment
In order to max​imise the ef​fi​cien​cies of pri​vate par​tic​i​pa​tion in power mar​-
kets, there are cer​tain mea​sures that could be im​ple​mented to as​sist in cul​-
ti​vat​ing a more ma​ture pri​vate power mar​ket. Not im​ple​ment​ing these
mea​sures could cause mar​ket in​ef​fi​cien​cies, which may ul​ti​mately re​sult in
a cost to gov​ern​ment (be​cause the mar​ket will ul​ti​mately de​pend on the
gov​ern​ment to man​age these in​ef​fi​cien​cies). The more in​ef​fi​cient the mar​-
ket, the greater the cost to the gov​ern​ment. Con​versely, the ap​pli​ca​tion of
cer​tain key mar​ket re​form mea​sures should help en​sure the best avail​able
price for power and allow for a greater trans​fer of risk and re​spon​si​bil​ity
from gov​ern​ment to pri​vate mar​ket par​tic​i​pants.

Coun​tries need a sta​ble, con​sis​tent, and in​vest​ment-friendly frame​work of

laws and reg​u​la​tions in order to at​tract pri​vate in​vest​ment. Gov​ern​ments
have the pri​mary re​spon​si​bil​ity to cre​ate such an en​vi​ron​ment.

Sum​marised below are some crit​i​cal fac​tors that pri​vate in​vestors will re​-
view to un​der​stand a coun​try's legal and reg​u​la​tory frame​work. A re​view
of the gen​eral en​abling en​vi​ron​ment, as well as the pro​ject struc​ture, will
often be the start​ing point for in​vestor ne​go​ti​a​tions that may re​sult in the
in​vestor some​times re​quest​ing ad​di​tional com​fort in the form of credit en​-
hance​ments from the host gov​ern​ment and/or the off​taker.

Power Sector Policy, Legislation and Regulatory

15
 CREATING AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT

Power Sector Policy, Legislation and Regulatory

Frameworks
Laws that clearly de​fine the roles and rights of the var​i​ous gov​ern​ment en​-
ti​ties and pri​vate par​ties in​volved in the power sec​tor will en​hance the at​-
trac​tive​ness of the elec​tric​ity mar​ket for po​ten​tial in​vestors. This often en​-
tails gov​ern​ment par​ties clearly al​lo​cat​ing cer​tain rights and reme​dies to
pri​vate mar​ket par​tic​i​pants that they can rely on when eval​u​at​ing po​ten​tial
in​vest​ments. By firmly set​ting these rights and reme​dies in law and reg​u​la​-
tion, the gov​ern​ment is lim​it​ing its flex​i​bil​ity but is also at​tract​ing pri​vate
in​vest​ment.

An in​de​pen​dent reg​u​la​tor is also key to up​hold​ing and bal​anc​ing the rights

and in​ter​ests of all stake​hold​ers. An in​de​pen​dent reg​u​la​tor pro​vides com​-
fort to in​vestors that de​ci​sions re​gard​ing li​cenc​ing, pro​vi​sion​ing and tar​iffs
will not be taken ar​bi​trar​ily, whilst at the same time pro​tect​ing end-users
from sud​den or dis​pro​por​tion​ate tar​iff in​creases.

Secure Ownership Rights

Hav​ing a sys​tem that al​lows for clear se​cu​rity of own​er​ship rights is es​sen​-
tial for any in​vestor. In pro​ject fi​nance, lenders would re​quire cer​tainty
that they can ex​er​cise step-in rights and take over the pro​ject com​pany and
its as​sets in the event of loan de​faults.

Commercially Viable Sector

Cost-re​flec​tive tar​iffs are an im​por​tant re​quire​ment to en​sure the off​-
taker (and other util​i​ties) can re​tain mar​gins to be in​de​pen​dently fi​nan​-
cially vi​able and to, in turn, fi​nance the growth of the sec​tor. When the
tar​iff paid by end-users of power ac​cu​rately re​flects the cost of pro​duc​ing
that power, and trans​mit​ting and dis​trib​ut​ing it to the end-users (in​clud​ing
the cost of cap​i​tal com​men​su​rate with risk), no sub​sidy is re​quired by the
gov​ern​ment for the power sec​tor. If, how​ever, the tar​iff is not an ac​cu​rate
re​flec​tion of such cost, the util​ity will be a loss-mak​ing en​tity un​less al​ter​-
na​tive sources of funds are found to cover the deficit. This will im​pact in​-

16
 CONTEXT

vestor con​fi​dence in the off​taker to meet its on​go​ing pay​ment oblig​a​tions

over the course of a long-term pur​chase agree​ment. How​ever, in​creas​ing
elec​tric​ity tar​iffs to cost-re​flec​tive lev​els in keep​ing with the re​al​i​ties of an
emerg​ing power mar​ket can be chal​leng​ing, es​pe​cially where sup​ply is in​-
ter​mit​tent (i.e. brown-outs, black-outs), cre​at​ing po​lit​i​cal pres​sures to
main​tain low elec​tric​ity prices. This needs to be bal​anced against the con​-
se​quence of hav​ing a fi​nan​cially in​sol​vent power sec​tor, which may oth​er​-
wise ne​ces​si​tate ad​di​tional fi​nan​cial sup​port from the host gov​ern​ment to
at​tract ad​di​tional in​vest​ment. This makes it im​per​a​tive for the gov​ern​ment
to man​age the twin chal​lenges of in​vestor con​fi​dence and con​sumer con​fi​-
dence.
• Even if the off​taker ben​e​fits from a cost-re​flec​tive tar​iff, it will re​main a
loss-mak​ing en​tity if it is un​able to col​lect from end-users and cus​-
tomers (in​clud​ing, in some ju​ris​dic​tions, dis​tri​b​u​tion com​pa​nies). Hav​-
ing a ro​bust sys​tem of me​ter​ing and bill col​lec​tions is of crit​i​cal im​por​-
tance, in ad​di​tion to cost-re​flec​tive tar​iffs, for the fi​nan​cial sol​vency of
the power sec​tor.
• With a cost-re​flec​tive tar​iff and a ro​bust me​ter​ing and bill col​lec​tion
sys​tem, if the elec​tric​ity never reaches the end-user, the off​taker will
lose money. Min​imis​ing the tech​ni​cal and par​tic​u​larly com​mer​cial
losses from trans​mis​sion and dis​tri​b​u​tion is crit​i​cal to en​sur​ing proper
cash man​age​ment in the sys​tem.

The pri​vate sec​tor also plays a key role in en​sur​ing a com​mer​cially vi​able
power sec​tor. Spon​sors who build and op​er​ate ef​fi​cient plants that at​tain
the end goal of pro​vid​ing elec​tric​ity in a sus​tain​able and cost-ef​fec​tive
man​ner are re​quired in this long-term part​ner​ship.

Competitive Tenders

17
 CREATING AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT

Competitive Tenders
Procur​ing power through a pub​lic and com​pet​i​tive ten​der process is often
seen as the best way to en​sure that value for money is achieved re​gard​ing
power gen​er​a​tion pric​ing. This process, how​ever, will gen​er​ally take more
time to com​plete than pro​cure​ment of power through un​so​licited bids (in​-
clud​ing emer​gency power) and may not be ap​pro​pri​ate in cir​cum​stances
where the gov​ern​ment needs to pro​cure power on an ex​pe​dited basis.
How​ever, this ad​di​tional time al​lows prospec​tive providers to for​mu​late
the best pos​si​ble bid ac​cord​ing to well-spec​i​fied guide​lines, and gives the
gov​ern​ment time to as​sess and com​pare bids against pre-spec​i​fied cri​te​ria.

Alternative Offtake Arrangements

Power pro​jects gen​er​ally sell the power they pro​duce to a bulk pur​chaser
who co​or​di​nates the sale of power to the end-user (ei​ther di​rectly or
through a dis​tri​b​u​tion com​pany). If the arrange​ment be​tween the power
pro​ject and the util​ity is ter​mi​nated for any rea​son, then the power pro​-
ducer will need to find an al​ter​na​tive way to mon​e​tise the power it is able
to gen​er​ate, un​less it has rights to ter​mi​na​tion com​pen​sa​tion. As a re​sult,
many mar​kets have evolved to per​mit a power pro​ducer to di​rectly sell to
one or more cus​tomers through the grid, with​out the ben​e​fit of a sales
agree​ment with the util​ity. The util​ity takes re​spon​si​bil​ity to evac​u​ate and
dis​trib​ute the power (and may col​lect end-user pay​ments on be​half of the
power com​pany) for a fee. Such wheel​ing arrange​ments will need to be
clearly per​mit​ted by law and en​cour​aged by the gov​ern​ment. From a gov​-
ern​ment’s per​spec​tive, these arrange​ments may limit the gov​ern​ment’s
abil​ity to reg​u​late the price paid by all end-users, and may also place an ad​-
min​is​tra​tive bur​den on the util​ity that must evac​u​ate the power. On the
other hand, the fee charged by the util​ity should off​set the cost. Per​haps
most im​por​tantly, the ex​is​tence of a vi​able wheel​ing al​ter​na​tive is seen as
cru​cial to many pro​ject fi​nance par​tic​i​pants in en​sur​ing that if, for what​-
ever rea​son, a PPA with the util​ity is ter​mi​nated, the power pro​ject they
have helped to fi​nance will nonethe​less be able to sell its power and repay
the pro​ject fi​nance debt and eq​uity fun​ders.

18
3. Financing
Structures
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Project Finance Essentials
3.3. Sources of Financing
3.4. Particular Aspects of Project Financing
3.5. Stakeholders
3.6. Summary of Key Points

19
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

3.1. Introduction
Principal Financing Models
Four fi​nanc​ing struc​tures are pri​mar​ily used to fi​nance power pro​jects.
They are dis​tin​guished by which party or par​ties bear re​spon​si​bil​ity for
fund​ing the up​front costs of a pro​ject. Each al​ter​na​tive pre​sents its own ad​-
van​tages and dis​ad​van​tages re​lated to tim​ing, cost and com​plex​ity of struc​-
tur​ing and im​ple​men​ta​tion. The four pri​mary struc​tures are host gov​ern​-
ment fi​nanc​ing, de​vel​oper fi​nanc​ing, re​source-based in​fra​struc​ture
fi​nanc​ing, and pro​ject fi​nanc​ing. There are many vari​a​tions of these
four struc​tures on trans​ac​tions, but the core con​cepts re​main sim​i​lar.

Host Government Financing

In host gov​ern​ment fi​nanc​ing, the gov​ern​ment of the host coun​try will use
the strength of its bal​ance sheet to fund a pro​ject by lend​ing funds to, or
con​tribut​ing ad​di​tional eq​uity to, the off​taker so that the off​taker may de​-
velop the pro​ject. The funds may be de​rived from the sov​er​eign’s cash re​-
serves or from funds that a sov​er​eign bor​rows for its own ac​count from
third par​ties (e.g. cap​i​tal mar​kets, mul​ti​lat​eral de​vel​op​ment banks, bi​lat​eral
in​sti​tu​tions). Where a sov​er​eign bor​rows for its own ac​count, then on-
lends the funds to an off​taker, the fund​ing is some​times re​ferred to as an
on-lend​ing arrange​ment.

The cost of fund​ing varies based on the source of the fund​ing and the
credit-wor​thi​ness of the sov​er​eign. De​vel​op​ment Fi​nance In​sti​tu​tions may
pro​vide lower in​come coun​tries with fi​nanc​ing at sig​nif​i​cantly lower costs,
and pos​si​bly at longer tenors, than fi​nanc​ing pro​vided by the pri​vate mar​-
ket. This fi​nanc​ing is typ​i​cally re​ferred to as con​ces​sional fi​nanc​ing.

Host gov​ern​ment fi​nanc​ing can be an at​trac​tive al​ter​na​tive where the host

coun​try has ad​e​quate funds on hand or can raise ad​di​tional funds from
lenders at at​trac​tive rates and does not have more press​ing needs to which
such funds must be ap​plied. Host gov​ern​ment fi​nanced pro​jects gen​er​ally
in​volve fewer par​ties. This model of​fers the ben​e​fit of not hav​ing to co​or​-

20
 INTRODUCTION

di​nate with mul​ti​ple fund​ing par​ties and all of the com​pli​cated struc​tures
that such co​or​di​na​tion can en​tail. Pro​cure​ment is usu​ally gov​erned by na​-
tional pro​cure​ment rules so the par​ties se​lected to con​struct the pro​ject will
usu​ally be se​lected by the off​taker through a trans​par​ent and com​pet​i​tive
process.

The chal​lenges pre​sented by host gov​ern​ment fi​nanc​ing re​late pri​mar​ily to

op​por​tu​nity cost. Given the lim​ited cap​i​tal avail​able to many gov​ern​ments,
they must weigh the need to fund a pro​ject on their bal​ance sheet against
the fund​ing re​quire​ments of the many cap​i​tal-in​ten​sive ser​vices and pro​-
grammes that a sov​er​eign must sup​port (such as so​cial pro​grammes, na​-
tional se​cu​rity, and other in​fra​struc​ture pro​jects). In essence, every dol​lar
that a sov​er​eign uses to fi​nance a pro​ject is a dol​lar that it can​not use for
ed​u​ca​tion, pub​lic health, polic​ing its streets, or de​fend​ing its bor​ders.

The di​a​gram that ap​pears below graph​i​cally de​picts a host gov​ern​ment fi​-
nanc​ing struc​ture.

21
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

Host Government Financing Structure

Strengths:
• Lower fi​nanc​ing costs, par​tic​u​larly if con​ces​sional fi​nanc​ing is avail​able
or if the host coun​try is able to raise funds by is​su​ing bonds on in​ter​na​-
tional cap​i​tal mar​kets
• Fewer co​or​di​na​tion chal​lenges

22
 INTRODUCTION

Weaknesses:
• Op​por​tu​nity cost of cap​i​tal
• Sig​nif​i​cant cash re​quired from gov​ern​ment

Developer Financing
Some large multi​na​tional cor​po​ra​tions – such as in​ter​na​tional oil com​pa​-
nies and min​ing com​pa​nies – can use the strength of their bal​ance sheets to
fund a pro​ject by con​tribut​ing in the form of eq​uity all of the funds that are
re​quired by the pro​ject com​pany to de​velop the pro​ject. These funds may
be de​rived from re​tained earn​ings or may be bor​rowed by the de​vel​oper
from banks or raised through the is​suance of cor​po​rate bonds. De​vel​oper
fi​nanc​ing could be one com​po​nent of a pub​lic pri​vate part​ner​ship (PPP)
de​pend​ing on the pro​ject struc​ture.

De​vel​oper fi​nanc​ing lim​its the num​ber of fund​ing par​ties which must be

co​or​di​nated and avoids the com​plex​ity that is often as​so​ci​ated with multi-
party fi​nanc​ings. Sim​i​lar to host gov​ern​ment fi​nanc​ing, de​vel​oper fi​nanc​-
ing forces a de​vel​oper to forego other uses of its funds, or its abil​ity to bor​-
row, in order to fi​nance a pro​ject. In most cases a de​vel​oper will not have
the fi​nan​cial ca​pac​ity to fund a size​able pro​ject using de​vel​oper fi​nanc​ing
alone. In prac​tice, few util​ity scale pro​jects are funded only with de​vel​oper
fi​nanc​ing.

The di​a​gram that ap​pears below graph​i​cally de​picts a de​vel​oper fi​nanc​ing

struc​ture.

23
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

Developer Financing Structure

Strengths:
• Fewer co​or​di​na​tion chal​lenges
• No cash re​quired from gov​ern​ment

Weaknesses:
• Lim​ited num​ber of de​vel​op​ers with ap​petite for this struc​ture

Resource-based Infrastructure Financing

24
 INTRODUCTION

Resource-based Infrastructure Financing

Re​source-based in​fra​struc​ture fi​nanc​ing en​tails a host coun​try re​tain​ing a
third party con​trac​tor or de​vel​oper to de​sign, con​struct and im​ple​ment a
pro​ject in ex​change for rights to nat​ural re​sources granted by the host
coun​try to a for​eign sov​er​eign coun​ter​part. In this struc​ture, the third
party con​trac​tor (typ​i​cally a for​eign state-owned en​ter​prise) is ob​lig​ated to
fund its de​sign, con​struc​tion and im​ple​men​ta​tion ac​tiv​i​ties, os​ten​si​bly with
the con​trac​tor's ul​ti​mate re​im​burse​ment com​ing from its sale or use of the
nat​ural re​sources it is able to ex​tract.

As with de​vel​oper fi​nanc​ing, this model lim​its the num​ber of fund​ing par​-
ties with which a host coun​try has to deal, and avoids the com​plex​ity that is
often as​so​ci​ated with multi-party fi​nanc​ing. This model re​duces the com​-
plex​ity of deal​ing with third-party own​ers and op​er​a​tors dur​ing the life of
the pro​ject, pre​sum​ably speed​ing up the time​line of the de​vel​op​ment. It
also pre​sents the added ben​e​fit of not tap​ping into a sov​er​eign’s avail​able
cash re​serves or its ac​cess to third-party lend​ing, giv​ing the ap​pear​ance of
avoid​ing the op​por​tu​nity cost faced by many gov​ern​ments when con​tem​-
plat​ing sov​er​eign fi​nanc​ing.

The pri​mary chal​lenge with this model is how to ac​cu​rately value the rights
to nat​ural re​sources that are ex​changed for the in​fra​struc​ture. Volatil​ity of
com​mod​ity prices, tim​ing of planned ex​trac​tion, and fi​nan​cial ca​pac​ity of
the gov​ern​ments to ben​e​fit from the nat​ural re​sources, make it al​most im​-
pos​si​ble to prop​erly as​sess their value. The rights to nat​ural re​sources
(often non-re​new​able) are used to pay the for​eign coun​try. Host coun​tries
may not be able to cal​cu​late the true costs of the trans​ac​tion for sev​eral
years.

This struc​ture also pre​sents op​por​tu​nity costs that may not be as read​ily
ap​par​ent as those pre​sent in sov​er​eign fi​nanc​ing, but that are very real
nonethe​less. While not di​rectly im​pact​ing the bal​ance sheet of the host
coun​try, this fi​nanc​ing struc​ture does re​quire a sov​er​eign to give up po​ten​-
tial fu​ture rev​enues from nat​ural re​sources that could be used to pay for
other prod​ucts, ser​vices or ini​tia​tives for fu​ture gen​er​a​tions.

25
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

In ad​di​tion, be​cause the sov​er​eign is not re​quired to make pay​ments to the

con​trac​tor in cash, there is a risk that less at​ten​tion might be paid to the
terms of the con​tract doc​u​ments. In par​tic​u​lar, be​cause pay​ments may not
be made against the achieve​ment of mile​stones, it may be hard to ad​e​-
quately in​cen​tivise the con​trac​tor to stay on sched​ule or de​liver a cer​tain
qual​ity of prod​uct. Like​wise, this struc​ture pre​sents a risk that less at​ten​-
tion may be paid to per​for​mance bonds or war​ranty oblig​a​tions, in​creas​ing
the risk of de​lays and com​pro​mised pro​ject qual​ity. Fi​nally, be​cause no pay​-
ments must be made to the con​trac​tor from the sov​er​eign’s bal​ance sheet,
and given the ab​sence of mul​ti​ple fund​ing par​ties that will be re​paid from
the long-term rev​enues of the pro​ject (e.g. se​nior lenders), there is an in​-
creased risk that a pro​ject’s eco​nom​ics and long-term vi​a​bil​ity (in​clud​ing
so​cial and eco​nomic im​pacts) will not be as thor​oughly dili​genced.

The di​a​gram that ap​pears below pro​vides an ex​am​ple of how a re​source-

based in​fra​struc​ture pro​ject fi​nanc​ing is struc​tured.

Resource-based Infrastructure Financing

Strengths:
• Fewer co​or​di​na​tion chal​lenges
• Shorter time frame from con​cept to op​er​a​tions
• No cash re​quired from gov​ern​ment

26
 INTRODUCTION

Weaknesses:
• Ac​tual costs to host coun​try not known for sev​eral years
• Mort​gages nat​ural re​sources of fu​ture gen​er​a​tions
• Dif​fi​cult to mon​i​tor and en​force per​for​mance and war​ranty oblig​a​tions
of con​trac​tor

Project Financing
In pro​ject fi​nance struc​tures, the sov​er​eign (or a gov​ern​ment off​taker)
grants cer​tain con​ces​sion rights re​lated to the build​ing, own​er​ship, and op​-
er​a​tion of a pro​ject to a spe​cial pur​pose com​pany whose sole busi​ness is the
build​ing, own​er​ship, and op​er​a​tion of the pro​ject. The pro​ject com​pany
will often con​tract third par​ties to per​form cer​tain of these oblig​a​tions
(such as con​struc​tion and op​er​a​tion). The pro​ject com​pany is ob​lig​ated to
fi​nance the pro​ject using:
• funds in​jected by its own​ers as eq​uity in​vest​ments or share​holder loans
(funds bor​rowed from the share​hold​ers that are sub​or​di​nated to the se​-
nior lenders);
• loans pro​vided by lenders such as com​mer​cial banks, ex​port credit agen​-
cies, de​vel​op​ment fi​nance in​sti​tu​tions, mul​ti​lat​eral de​vel​op​ment banks,
ex​port-im​port banks; and
• in some cases, funds made avail​able by the sov​er​eign or by donor par​ties
ei​ther as con​ces​sion​ary loans or grants.

Lenders typ​i​cally lend the ma​jor​ity of the fund​ing re​quired by the pro​ject
com​pany on a lim​ited-re​course basis. This means that loans are se​cured by
all of the as​sets of the pro​ject com​pany (in​clud​ing their con​trac​tual rights
under the pro​ject agree​ments) and by a pledge over the shares in the pro​-
ject com​pany. In the event that the pro​ject com​pany is not able to repay the
loans, the lenders have no re​course against the in​vestors.

27
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

Cre​at​ing a sep​a​rate pro​ject com​pany en​sures that the bor​rower's abil​ity to

repay the debt oblig​a​tions will not be af​fected by lines of busi​ness that are
un​re​lated to the pro​ject, but will in​stead be af​fected only by the per​for​-
mance of the pro​ject. This re​sults in longer loan tenors and lower in​ter​est
rates when com​pared to the tenors and rates that a de​vel​oper would be able
to achieve by bor​row​ing using cor​po​rate fi​nance tech​niques.

Pro​ject fi​nance avoids ca​pac​ity con​straints, op​por​tu​nity costs and bal​ance

sheet fi​nanc​ing by a sov​er​eign. In ad​di​tion to being cap​i​tal in​ten​sive,
power pro​jects re​quire large scale long-term in​vest​ment. A gov​ern​ment
may not have the re​sources to fi​nance a power pro​ject on its bal​ance sheet.
Fur​ther​more, even if a gov​ern​ment has the fi​nan​cial means to fi​nance a
power pro​ject, it may have other pre​ferred or more press​ing needs for its
fi​nances so the op​por​tu​nity cost of al​lo​cat​ing re​sources to build a power
plant can be high.

Mul​ti​ple par​ties in​volved in the fi​nanc​ing can fa​cil​i​tate more thor​ough or

com​pre​hen​sive due dili​gence as there will be mul​ti​ple sets of eyes and
minds fo​cused on pro​ject fun​da​men​tals.

Struc​tur​ing power deals as pro​ject fi​nance trans​ac​tions fa​cil​i​tates the ap​-

por​tion​ment of var​i​ous trans​ac​tion risks to those best placed, will​ing and
able to as​sume them. For ex​am​ple, in​vestors with a larger risk ap​petite may
be will​ing to in​vest in a pro​ject pre-con​struc​tion, when it is per​ceived to be
riski​est. On the other hand, a risk-averse in​vestor, such as a pen​sion fund,
may pre​fer to in​vest in a power pro​ject at a later stage or in a lower risk
tranche of debt.

Pro​ject fi​nance may be more af​ford​able or more ex​pen​sive than fi​nanc​ing a

pro​ject on the host coun​try bal​ance sheet. This is de​pen​dent on four fac​-
tors: (1) gov​ern​ment's cost of cap​i​tal, (2) tenor, (3) avail​abil​ity of fi​nanc​ing,
and (4) amount of eq​uity in the pro​ject. If a gov​ern​ment is fund​ing a pro​-
ject from pro​ceeds of a bond is​suance, it is pos​si​ble that the coupon rate of
the bond is​suance may be higher than the rate given to the pro​ject com​-
pany in a pro​ject fi​nance trans​ac​tion. If it is fund​ing a pro​ject using con​ces​-
sional fi​nanc​ing, it is pos​si​ble that the rate may be lower. It is also pos​si​ble

28
 INTRODUCTION

that the fund​ing sources avail​able to the gov​ern​ment may have shorter or
longer tenors (which would im​pact the tim​ing of the bur​den on gov​ern​-
ment). If there is no al​ter​na​tive source of fund​ing avail​able, pro​ject fi​nance
will allow the pro​ject to move for​ward and the gov​ern​ment to ben​e​fit from
the wider eco​nomic ben​e​fits of hav​ing a power pro​ject.

Pro​ject fi​nance trans​ac​tions may incur more up-front costs due to the mul​-
ti​ple par​ties, fi​nanc​ing doc​u​ments, and legal doc​u​ments in​volved as well as
ex​ten​sive due dili​gence re​quired. There are costs as​so​ci​ated with the mul​ti​-
ple arrangers who struc​ture the deal, legal fees as​so​ci​ated with the var​i​ous
pro​ject agree​ments and fi​nanc​ing doc​u​ments, agent fees for the co​or​di​na​-
tion of pay​ments and the hold​ing of the se​cu​rity, and other re​lated costs.

Pro​ject fi​nance adds lay​ers of com​plex​ity to a trans​ac​tion rel​a​tive to bal​ance

sheet fi​nanc​ing. This com​plex​ity often re​quires sig​nif​i​cant co​or​di​na​tion of
par​ties. This co​or​di​na​tion can often cause de​lays. The up​front in​vest​ment
in both time and re​sources for a pro​ject fi​nance trans​ac​tion tend to be
higher than some of the pre​vi​ously men​tioned al​ter​na​tives.

The di​a​gram below il​lus​trates a typ​i​cal pro​ject fi​nanc​ing struc​ture. It is

fo​cused on the fi​nanc​ing arrange​ments rather than the en​tire pro​ject
struc​ture.

29
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

Project Financing Structure

Strengths:
• No cash re​quired from Gov​ern​ment
• Pro​ject risk ef​fi​ciently and eq​ui​tably al​lo​cated to par​ties will​ing and able
to bear the risks
• Thor​ough due dili​gence and per​for​mance guar​an​tees re​quired by pro​-
ject com​pany

Weaknesses:
• Com​plex co​or​di​na​tion chal​lenges
• Pro​jects take more time to reach op​er​a​tions
• Higher up-front costs

30
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

3.2. Project Finance Essentials

As noted above, pro​ject fi​nance is a means of fi​nanc​ing a com​pany cre​ated
for the spe​cific pur​pose of own​ing, con​struct​ing and op​er​at​ing a pro​ject,
with lim​ited or no re​course to that com​pany's share​hold​ers, in a way that
en​ables fi​nanc​ing from mul​ti​ple sources of cap​i​tal, or mul​ti​ple in​vestors,
against re​pay​ment from the com​pany's fu​ture cash flows.

The Role of a Project Company

The pro​ject com​pany is a new, legally dis​tinct and ring-fenced en​tity es​tab​-
lished specif​i​cally for the pur​pose of own​ing, con​struct​ing, and op​er​at​ing a
pro​ject. This en​tity is often re​ferred to as a spe​cial pur​pose com​pany, spe​-
cial pur​pose ve​hi​cle or spe​cial pur​pose en​tity since it was cre​ated for a spe​-
cific pur​pose. A pro​ject typ​i​cally in​volves the con​struc​tion of some form of
in​fra​struc​ture or an​other type of op​er​at​ing asset. In the power con​text, ex​-
am​ples of pro​jects could in​clude power plants, trans​mis​sion net​works, or
sub​sta​tions.

Limited or Non-Recourse Financing

Pro​ject fi​nance is also known as lim​ited or non-re​course fi​nanc​ing. As the
ter​mi​nol​ogy sug​gests, in lim​ited re​course fi​nanc​ing, the share​hold​ers have
lim​ited li​a​bil​ity for the debts and oblig​a​tions of the pro​ject com​pany, and in
non-re​course fi​nanc​ing, they have no li​a​bil​ity for the debts and oblig​a​tions
of the pro​ject com​pany. The level of re​course re​quired de​pends on the risks
in​her​ent in the pro​ject, aris​ing from such el​e​ments as the tech​nol​ogy, com​-
plex​ity of con​struc​tion and op​er​a​tion of the as​sets.

The Debt and Equity Players

31
 PROJECT FINANCE ESSENTIALS

The Debt and Equity Players

Sponsors / Developers
The spon​sors and de​vel​op​ers are the pri​mary par​ties that ini​ti​ate the pro​-
ject, per​form​ing fea​si​bil​ity stud​ies, ob​tain​ing con​ces​sions, ne​go​ti​at​ing with
pro​ject par​ties and sourc​ing the most ap​pro​pri​ate mix of eq​uity in​vestors
and debt providers for the pro​ject. The de​vel​op​ers incur the ini​tial de​vel​-
op​ment costs which are often re​funded with some re​turn, once the pro​ject
fi​nanc​ing is im​ple​mented. The de​vel​op​ers and spon​sors also pro​vide eq​-
uity, po​ten​tially along​side ad​di​tional in​vestors, and are re​ferred to as pro​-
ject share​hold​ers or eq​uity providers.

Debt and Equity Providers

Sources of fi​nanc​ing can in​clude var​i​ous debt fun​ders (lenders) or eq​uity
in​vestors. Eq​uity in​vestors typ​i​cally as​sume a higher level of risk than the
lenders and re​quire a com​men​su​rate re​turn on their in​vest​ment. In large
trans​ac​tions, there may be a num​ber of such in​vestors and even groups or
tiers of in​vestors with dis​tinct in​vest​ment and/or own​er​ship rights, and
rights. Sim​i​larly, the lender group may con​sist of a com​bi​na​tion of com​-
mer​cial banks (local and in​ter​na​tional), De​vel​op​ment Fi​nance In​sti​tu​tions,
Mul​ti​lat​eral De​vel​op​ment Banks, Ex​port Credit Agen​cies, pen​sion funds,
and oth​ers, with dif​fer​ent tranches of debt hav​ing dif​fer​ent re​pay​ment pro​-
files, tenors, pric​ing and rank​ing in terms of re​pay​ment and se​cu​rity.
Sources of fi​nanc​ing for a power pro​ject are de​scribed in fur​ther de​tail in
Sec​tion 3.3 below.

Transaction Advisor and Arranger

32
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

Transaction Advisor and Arranger

De​ter​min​ing the op​ti​mum blend of eq​uity and debt fund​ing re​quired for a
pro​ject may be quite com​plex and ul​ti​mately in​volves a ma​trix of legal and
fi​nan​cial agree​ments. Trans​ac​tion ad​vi​sors as​sist the spon​sors in op​ti​mis​-
ing the cap​i​tal struc​ture and de​vel​op​ing fi​nan​cial mod​els re​flect​ing the
most ap​pro​pri​ate fund​ing struc​ture, while debt arrangers as​sist in sourc​ing
the most ap​pro​pri​ate fund​ing, ne​go​ti​at​ing the fund​ing terms, co​or​di​nat​ing
the due dili​gence and the ex​e​cu​tion of the fi​nanc​ing pack​age. In some pro​-
ject fi​nance trans​ac​tions, there may be mul​ti​ple such arrangers, each ar​-
rang​ing a dif​fer​ent tranche of fund​ing.

Security Agent and Facility Agent

The lenders would re​quire cer​tain se​cu​rity to be in place be​fore funds are
dis​bursed. Where there are mul​ti​ple lenders, the se​cu​rity will be shared
amongst the lenders and, de​pend​ing on the ju​ris​dic​tion, is ei​ther held in a
sep​a​rate legal en​tity (se​cu​rity SPV) or held in a se​cu​rity trust. A se​cu​rity
agent is usu​ally ap​pointed to man​age the se​cu​rity granted by the bor​rower
and co​or​di​nate re​quests be​tween the lender and bor​rower with re​spect to
any at​tempt by the lender to en​force mat​ters.

In a trans​ac​tion with mul​ti​ple lenders, the role of the fa​cil​ity agent is to co​-
or​di​nate ac​tiv​i​ties on be​half of the lenders, in​clud​ing re​quests for dis​burse​-
ment, re​pay​ments, mon​i​tor​ing of covenants and gen​eral com​mu​ni​ca​tion
be​tween lenders and bor​rower.

Finance Documents
Common Terms Agreement

The com​mon terms agree​ment con​tains all the fi​nanc​ing terms com​mon to
all the dif​fer​ent loan fa​cil​i​ties, (for ex​am​ple, con​di​tions to fund​ing, fi​nan​-
cial covenants, events of de​fault, rep​re​sen​ta​tions and other un​der​tak​ings).
The com​mon terms agree​ment is likely to be a lengthy doc​u​ment with sev​-
eral sched​ules and an​nex​ures. It is the key fi​nance doc​u​ment be​tween the
pro​ject com​pany and the lenders.

33
 PROJECT FINANCE ESSENTIALS

Facility Agreements
The spe​cific terms and con​di​tions ap​plic​a​ble to each loan fa​cil​ity (tenor, re​-
pay​ment pro​file, pric​ing) are set out in loan agree​ments be​tween the pro​-
ject com​pany and the lenders.

Security Documents
Lenders will re​quire se​cu​rity over the pro​ject com​pany and all of its as​sets
as a con​di​tion to lend​ing. Se​cu​rity pack​ages de​pend on the ju​ris​dic​tion, but
would usu​ally in​clude se​cu​rity over the shares in the com​pany, over both
move​able and im​mov​able as​sets and over​all pro​ject agree​ments and rights.
Com​mon types of se​cu​rity doc​u​ments in​clude mort​gages, pledges, as​sign​-
ments, charges and liens. De​pend​ing on the ju​ris​dic​tion, third par​ties (such
as gov​ern​ment en​ti​ties and con​trac​tors) may need to be no​ti​fied of, and in
some cases ei​ther ac​knowl​edge or con​sent to, the grant​ing of se​cu​rity by
the pro​ject com​pany.

Accounts Agreement
Lenders will seek to con​trol the pro​ject com​pany's cash flow by stip​u​lat​ing
the order in which pay​ments from pro​ject rev​enue can be made. This is
com​monly termed the "pay​ment wa​ter​fall". Lenders also re​quire that cer​-
tain bank ac​counts be opened and that funds are moved be​tween ac​counts
in ac​cor​dance with this wa​ter​fall. This move​ment of funds is reg​u​lated in
the Ac​counts Agree​ment.

The pay​ment wa​ter​fall en​sures that there is a pri​or​ity of pay​ments es​tab​-

lished from in​cep​tion to en​sure that the pro​ject (i) pays its op​er​a​tional ex​-
penses such as taxes and salaries so that it can con​tinue to op​er​ate; (ii) that
lenders are paid back their debt; (iii) that there are suf​fi​cient main​te​nance
and debt ser​vice re​serves; and (iv) the re​lease of dis​tri​b​u​tions to the pro​ject
spon​sors as div​i​dends or re​pay​ments of share​holder loans. Pay​ment wa​ter​-
falls can have up to ten or more lev​els of cas​cade be​fore div​i​dends are al​-
lowed to be re​leased.

Intercreditor Agreement

34
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

Intercreditor Agreement
Dif​fer​ent fi​nan​cial in​sti​tu​tions have dif​fer​ing ob​jec​tives. DFIs may be more
con​cerned with en​vi​ron​men​tal, so​cial and other pol​icy guide​lines. ECAs
may be con​cerned about mat​ters that af​fect the spend​ing on equip​ment or
other costs from their re​spec​tive coun​try. Com​mer​cial lenders may take a
more con​ser​v​a​tive view on pro​ject com​pany de​faults. Mez​za​nine or sub​or​-
di​nated lenders may have lim​ited de​ci​sion-mak​ing and/or se​cu​rity rights.
Hedg​ing banks will wish to en​sure that in the event of an early ter​mi​na​tion
of the pro​ject, they re​ceive amounts due to them from the pro​ject com​pany
out of any sums avail​able to cred​i​tors.

The In​ter​cred​i​tor Agree​ment reg​u​lates the re​la​tion​ship be​tween the

lenders and reg​u​lates vot​ing rights of and de​ci​sion-mak​ing by lenders. It
will also deal with how any pro​ceeds of se​cu​rity en​force​ment are ap​por​-
tioned amongst the var​i​ous fi​nance par​ties.

Hedging Documents
Lenders often re​quire the pro​ject com​pany to hedge risks re​lat​ing to for​-
eign ex​change, in​ter​est rates and/or com​mod​ity price move​ments.

This can be doc​u​mented in a num​ber of ways, via swaps or other types of

hedg​ing in​stru​ments. The providers of these in​stru​ments to a pro​ject fi​-
nanc​ing are very often the same fi​nan​cial in​sti​tu​tions pro​vid​ing se​nior
debt.

Direct Agreements
As the lenders are not a party to the key pro​ject agree​ments that the pro​ject
com​pany en​ters into, they do not have con​trac​tual re​la​tion​ships with the
coun​ter​par​ties to such agree​ments. In order to ac​knowl​edge the lenders'
rights in terms of the pro​ject, lenders re​quire di​rect agree​ments be​tween
them​selves and the par​ties to cer​tain pro​ject agree​ments.

35
 PROJECT FINANCE ESSENTIALS

Di​rect agree​ments typ​i​cally con​tain one or more of the fol​low​ing pro​vi​-

sions:
a. An ac​knowl​edge​ment by the coun​ter​party (e.g. off​taker, host gov​ern​-
ment, con​struc​tion con​trac​tor, O&M con​trac​tor) of the se​cu​rity taken
by the lenders over the pro​ject com​pany’s rights in and to the rel​e​vant
con​tract (e.g. PPA, gov​ern​ment sup​port, EPC con​tract, O&M con​tract);
b. Agree​ment by the coun​ter​party not to ter​mi​nate or sus​pend the rel​e​-
vant pro​ject agree​ment with​out prior no​tice to the lenders;
c. An ac​knowl​edge​ment that the lenders may sub​sti​tute the pro​ject com​-
pany or oth​er​wise “step in” to its shoes to con​tinue the pro​ject com​-
pany’s oblig​a​tions under the rel​e​vant pro​ject agree​ment, in the event of
a de​fault or other en​force​ment sce​nario; and/or
d. Where pro​ject agree​ments have been signed be​fore lenders have had
the op​por​tu​nity to com​ment or re​view, amend​ments re​quired by
lenders to the un​der​ly​ing rel​e​vant pro​ject agree​ment.

Di​rect agree​ments are some​times re​ferred to as third-party con​sents.

Shareholder Agreements and Equity Subscription Agreements

The share​holder agree​ments reg​u​late the re​la​tion​ship of the share​hold​ers
and stip​u​late their rights and oblig​a​tions and the eq​uity sub​scrip​tion agree​-
ments reg​u​late the eq​uity move​ment and rights of each eq​uity provider.

36
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

3.3. Sources of Financing

Pro​jects are typ​i​cally fi​nanced through a com​bi​na​tion of debt and eq​uity.
The split be​tween the debt and eq​uity in a pro​ject is re​ferred to as the level
of gear​ing or lever​age.

A gear​ing or lever​age ratio is very much de​pen​dent on the amount of cash

flow avail​able to make debt pay​ments (debt-car​ry​ing ca​pac​ity) of the pro​-
ject as well as per​ceived pro​ject risks.

There are cer​tain prac​ti​cal im​pli​ca​tions of a pro​ject's gear​ing to the host

gov​ern​ment. A lender's con​sid​er​a​tion of the level of gear​ing will in​clude
sec​tor norms and the per​ceived risk of the pro​ject. If the sov​er​eign is pro​-
vid​ing credit sup​port for the debt oblig​a​tions of a pro​ject (for ex​am​ple, by
way of pay​ment of a com​pen​sa​tion sum that in​cludes debt amounts after
ter​mi​na​tion) then a pru​dent sov​er​eign or off​taker will need to un​der​stand
the gear​ing ratio as it will de​ter​mine the level of con​tin​gent li​a​bil​ity that
needs to be set aside to meet the un​der​ly​ing oblig​a​tion aris​ing from the
credit sup​port in​stru​ment. On the other hand, a lower gear​ing ratio (i.e.,
less debt, more eq​uity) will in​crease the cost of power, since eq​uity hold​ers
will ex​pect a higher re​turn than debt providers.

Types of Financing
There are var​i​ous types of fi​nanc​ing avail​able to a pro​ject com​pany. These
re​late to the dif​fer​ent tiers of fund​ing struc​tured within a pro​ject, which
have dif​fer​ing re​pay​ment pro​files and rates of re​turn. Dif​fer​ent lenders also
have dif​fer​ent ob​jec​tives from a pro​ject and this gov​erns both the level of
and pric​ing of their par​tic​i​pa​tion in the fi​nanc​ing.

The se​nior​ity of the debt (i.e. the pri​or​ity when it gets re​paid as against
other sources of fund​ing) is gov​erned by the cash flow pay​ment wa​ter​fall
for the pro​ject.

Senior Debt and Mezzanine / Subordinated Debt

37
 SOURCES OF FINANCING

Senior Debt and Mezzanine / Subordinated Debt

Se​nior debt is typ​i​cally pro​vided by a range of fi​nan​cial in​sti​tu​tions par​tic​i​-
pat​ing in a pro​ject. It usu​ally is the most sub​stan​tial form of fund​ing a pro​-
ject. For most power pro​jects the re​quire​ment is for long-term se​nior debt
with tenors of 10 years and be​yond.

Sim​i​lar to se​nior debt, sub​or​di​nated debt is pro​vided by a va​ri​ety of in​sti​tu​-

tions. This level of fund​ing is typ​i​cally sub​or​di​nated to the se​nior debt
tranches with re​spect to cash flow and cer​tain con​trac​tual rights. Given its
rank​ing, sub​or​di​nated debt is typ​i​cally more ex​pen​sive.

The typ​i​cal providers of such debt are:

De​vel​op​ment Fi​nance In​sti​tu​tions (DFIs)

DFIs are de​vel​op​ment-fo​cused and most ac​tive in mar​kets where there is
lim​ited ac​cess to al​ter​na​tive forms of pri​vate fi​nance. DFIs can lower pric​-
ing, lengthen tenor, add trans​parency and offer cov​er​age for in​vestors in
places of high risk. Their aim is to sup​port gov​ern​ment ob​jec​tives and pro​-
vide fund​ing to pro​jects that fall within their pre​scribed man​dates.
DFIs/mul​ti​lat​er​als usu​ally have com​pre​hen​sive cri​te​ria around en​vi​ron​-
men​tal and so​cial is​sues that need to be ful​filled as a con​di​tion to their par​-
tic​i​pa​tion in the fund​ing.

Promi​nent among them is the Over​seas Pri​vate In​vest​ment Cor​po​ra​tion

(OPIC), the U.S. Gov​ern​ment’s de​vel​op​ment fi​nance in​sti​tu​tion. OPIC
achieves its mis​sion by pro​vid​ing in​vestors with fi​nanc​ing, po​lit​i​cal risk in​-
sur​ance, and sup​port for pri​vate eq​uity in​vest​ment funds, when com​mer​-
cial fund​ing can​not be ob​tained else​where. OPIC’s loans and guar​an​tees are
a po​lit​i​cal risk de​ter​rent, mo​bil​is​ing pri​vate cap​i​tal, com​mer​cial loans, and
spon​sor in​vest​ments.

Most Eu​ro​pean coun​tries have DFIs, in​clud​ing Proparco of France, FMO

of The Nether​lands, DEG of Ger​many, CDC of the UK, Cofides S.A. of
Spain and smaller in​sti​tu​tions like the Scan​di​na​vian Finn​Fund, Nor​fund,
IFU and Swed​fund. Other DFIs in​clude the De​vel​op​ment Bank of South​-

38
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

ern Africa (DBSA) in Africa, and the China De​vel​op​ment Bank, the De​vel​-
op​ment Bank of Japan and the Korea De​vel​op​ment Bank in Asia.

Mul​ti​lat​er​als
Mul​ti​lat​er​als are in​ter​na​tional in​sti​tu​tions with gov​ern​men​tal mem​ber​ship
such as the World Bank, In​ter​na​tional Fi​nance Cor​po​ra​tion (IFC), Mul​ti​-
lat​eral In​vest​ment Guar​an​tee Agency (MIGA), In​ter-Amer​i​can De​vel​op​-
ment Bank (IDA), Eu​ro​pean Bank for Re​con​struc​tion and De​vel​op​ment
(EBRD), Asian De​vel​op​ment Bank (ADB), African De​vel​op​ment Bank
(AfDB) and In​ter-Amer​i​can De​vel​op​ment Bank (IaDB), all of which con​-
duct a sig​nif​i​cant part of their ac​tiv​i​ties in favour of de​vel​op​ment.

Among mul​ti​lat​er​als, the World Bank Group, through MIGA, the In​ter​na​-

tional De​vel​op​ment As​so​ci​a​tion (IDA), AfDB, IaDB and oth​ers pro​vide

guar​an​tee sup​port for pro​jects by cov​er​ing cer​tain oblig​a​tions of gov​ern​-
ments and/or sub-sov​er​eigns, which may be de​ployed in var​i​ous ways to
pro​tect lenders or pay​ees against credit or po​lit​i​cal risk.

IFC and AfDB, among oth​ers, can pro​vide a va​ri​ety of credit en​hance​ment
prod​ucts, in​clud​ing par​tial credit guar​an​tees for pri​vate sec​tor pro​jects and
com​pa​nies to mo​bilise pri​vate sec​tor fi​nanc​ing. In ad​di​tion, under their B-
Loan pro​grammes, other lenders can ben​e​fit from their re​spec​tive pre​-
ferred cred​i​tor sta​tus as loans syn​di​cated by them re​ceive pro rata and pari
passu treat​ment through cross-de​fault arrange​ments.

Po​lit​i​cal Risk In​sur​ance Providers

There are also a num​ber of in​sti​tu​tions that pro​vide po​lit​i​cal risk in​sur​ance
(PRI) for pro​ject spon​sors, com​mer​cial debt providers, and hedge
providers. These PRI providers in​clude the Mul​ti​lat​eral In​vest​ment Guar​-
an​tee Agency (MIGA), which is part of the World Bank Group, the Over​-
seas Pri​vate In​vest​ment Cor​po​ra​tiom (OPIC) the African Trade In​sur​ance
Agency (ATI) and the Eu​ro​pean In​vest​ment Bank (EIB) of the Eu​ro​pean

39
 SOURCES OF FINANCING

Union. PRI poli​cies may cover in​con​vert​ibil​ity, trans​fer re​stric​tion, ex​pro​-

pri​a​tion (in​clud​ing creep​ing ex​pro​pri​a​tion), war and civil dis​tur​bance, and
breach of con​tract, in​clud​ing ar​bi​tral award de​fault and de​nial of re​course.
PRI poli​cies may cover a num​ber of fund​ing sources in a pro​ject. MIGA,
for ex​am​ple, pro​vides PRI cov​er​ing both debt ser​vice and spon​sor eq​uity,
and can also pro​vide cov​er​age for hedge break​age costs. PRI can also be
viewed as a means of credit en​hance​ment to the ex​tent the pay​ment oblig​a​-
tions cov​ered are those of gov​ern​ment en​ti​ties.

Com​mer​cial banks
Com​mer​cial banks are pri​vately owned banks that par​tic​i​pate and pro​vide
fund​ing to pro​jects. Typ​i​cally these in​sti​tu​tions are reg​u​lated by cen​tral
banks and other in​ter​na​tional bank​ing reg​u​la​tions which im​pact the level
of liq​uid​ity, risk thresh​olds and pric​ing.

Ex​port Credit Agen​cies (ECAs)

ECAs are es​tab​lished by a coun​try's gov​ern​ment to pro​mote ex​port of its
goods and ser​vices. ECAs pro​vide cover to a trans​ac​tion by means of in​sur​-
ance or by means of a di​rect guar​an​tee of pay​ment. Such in​sur​ance cover or
guar​an​tees could be a com​bi​na​tion of com​mer​cial and po​lit​i​cal risk cover
or only po​lit​i​cal risk cover.

Where ECAs are in​volved, ex​porters are likely to offer more com​pet​i​tive
busi​ness terms. ECAs can pro​vide ap​pro​pri​ate cover when com​mer​cial
lenders are more re​luc​tant to as​sume po​lit​i​cal risks.

Syn​di​ca​tion
Syn​di​ca​tion refers to a sit​u​a​tion whereby there is a pri​mary or ini​tial group
of lenders that pro​vides fund​ing for a pro​ject and there​after sells por​tions
of it to sec​ondary lenders that were not in​volved in the ini​tial lend​ing
process. Syn​di​ca​tions are more preva​lent in larger trans​ac​tions. There
could be var​i​ous mo​ti​va​tions for the sale in​clud​ing in​creas​ing head​room
ca​pac​ity for the ini​tial lender and fa​cil​i​tat​ing in​vest​ments in the sec​ondary
mar​ket.

40
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

Equity (Strategic and Financial)

The debt providers in a pro​ject usu​ally re​quire an amount of eq​uity from
the spon​sors based on the agreed gear​ing level and this will take the form
of their own con​tri​bu​tion. The typ​i​cal providers of eq​uity are:

Spon​sor / De​vel​oper
The spon​sor/de​vel​oper typ​i​cally takes a sig​nif​i​cant stake of eq​uity in the
pro​ject and would be re​quired to sub​scribe for shares in the pro​ject com​-
pany and meet any re​quired on​go​ing eq​uity oblig​a​tions for suc​cess​ful com​-
ple​tion of the pro​ject. Spon​sors can pro​vide en​hance​ments through two
meth​ods: stand-by eq​uity and cor​po​rate/par​ent guar​an​tees. Stand-by eq​-
uity serves as an en​hance​ment to cover cost over​runs on a pro​ject dur​ing
con​struc​tion. Cor​po​rate/par​ent guar​an​tees are en​hance​ments that allow
the spon​sor to utilise the bal​ance sheet of its cor​po​rate or par​ent com​pany
to pro​tect against cost over​runs dur​ing the con​struc​tion pe​riod. Some​-
times, such guar​an​tees may ex​tend be​yond the con​struc​tion com​ple​tion to
back​stop cer​tain op​er​a​tional risks until cer​tain pre-de​ter​mined fi​nan​cial
cri​te​ria are achieved. In ad​di​tion, lenders may re​quire claw-backs of div​i​-
dends dis​trib​uted to spon​sors for a cer​tain pe​riod dur​ing op​er​a​tion.

Pri​vate Eq​uity Funds

This nor​mally takes the form of in​vest​ment funds that are con​sti​tuted to
in​vest eq​uity in a pro​ject. The in​vestors in the fund de​velop the in​vest​ment
pa​ra​me​ters in​clud​ing the in​vest​ment hori​zon and re​turn pa​ra​me​ters.
Funds in​vest in spe​cific pro​jects based on the cri​te​ria spelt out in their in​-
vest​ment char​ters/man​dates. Usu​ally, funds are run by a fund man​ager
who re​ports to a group of in​vestors and rep​re​sents their in​ter​ests.

Ven​ture Cap​i​tal (Com​mu​nity Fund​ing)

This is an early stage eq​uity in​vestor that in ex​change for in​vest​ing in high-
risk ven​tures will seek re​turns com​men​su​rate with the higher start-up risk
taken. In smaller-sized in​vest​ments, it may also be pos​si​ble to source de​vel​-
op​ment cap​i​tal from com​mu​nity or crowd​fund​ing sources. These forms of

41
 SOURCES OF FINANCING

cap​i​tal are not as com​mon for larger in​vest​ments and less rel​e​vant for on-
grid power gen​er​a​tion deals.

Im​pact In​vestors
These are pri​vate in​vestors who will ac​cept a lower mar​ket re​turn in ex​-
change for a so​cial re​turn, such as in​creased rural elec​tri​fi​ca​tion rates or
im​prove​ments in per​for​mance of the SME sec​tor. In cer​tain emerg​ing
mar​kets, im​pact in​vestors in the power sec​tor may also be re​ferred to as
"angel in​vestors". Ex​am​ples of im​pact in​vestors in​clude fam​ily or cor​po​rate
foun​da​tions. The ben​e​fit of im​pact in​vestors is that they in​vest in pro​jects
where com​mer​cial lenders are hes​i​tant to in​vest and fa​cil​i​tate proof of con​-
cept in newer untested struc​tures.

Capital Markets
Do​mes​tic and in​ter​na​tional cap​i​tal mar​kets are a fourth source of fi​nanc​ing
for power pro​ject fi​nance trans​ac​tions. The term "cap​i​tal mar​kets" broadly
refers to mar​kets in which one can buy and sell se​cu​ri​tized debt and eq​uity
in​stru​ments. In the con​text of power fi​nanc​ing in Africa, cap​i​tal mar​kets
in​clude both in​ter​na​tional and local cap​i​tal mar​kets. The depth and in​-
vestor in​ter​est in both mar​kets will vary sig​nif​i​cantly. While the cap​i​tal
mar​kets in emerg​ing and fron​tier mar​kets are still de​vel​op​ing, there are
sev​eral struc​tured fi​nance and eq​uity prod​ucts that have been rel​e​vant in
fi​nanc​ing power in other parts of the world. Those may be​come more
preva​lent on the African con​ti​nent in the years to come, in​clud​ing pro​ject
bonds, pub​lic of​fer​ings and yield com​pa​nies. These are dis​cussed fur​ther
below.

Pro​ject Bonds
A pro​ject bond is a debt se​cu​rity that pays in​vestors on a fixed sched​ule
from the pro​ceeds of the pro​ject, being the fu​ture cash flows of the pro​ject
com​pany. This fi​nanc​ing tool has not been widely used in many emerg​ing
mar​kets, but the po​ten​tial ex​ists for it to be a vi​able means of fi​nanc​ing as
en​ergy mar​kets ma​ture and be​come more at​trac​tive to cap​i​tal mar​ket in​-
vestors. Many of them are often in​sti​tu​tional in​vestors with a lower risk

42
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

ap​petite. The rea​sons pro​ject bonds are not so preva​lent in​clude the rel​a​-
tive in​flex​i​bil​ity (in terms of re​pay​ment).

Sov​er​eign and Sub-Sov​er​eign Bonds

An​other way in which fixed in​come debt in​stru​ments can fi​nance power is
through the is​suance of sov​er​eign bonds or sub-sov​er​eign bonds. A sov​er​-
eign bond is a bond is​sued by the na​tional gov​ern​ment for fi​nanc​ing cer​-
tain gov​ern​ment ob​jec​tives or needs. Sov​er​eign bond is​suances are an es​-
tab​lished way for coun​tries, in​clud​ing coun​tries on the African con​ti​nent,
to raise cap​i​tal. To date, no clear trend of al​lo​cat​ing cap​i​tal raised in a sov​-
er​eign bond of​fer​ing to fi​nance power has emerged, but sov​er​eigns have
the op​tion of using cap​i​tal raised for power fi​nanc​ing.

Sub-sov​er​eign bonds are bonds is​sued by any sub-sov​er​eign en​tity, such as

a mu​nic​i​pal​ity or state-owned util​ity. Quasi-sov​er​eign bonds are bonds is​-
sued by a state-owned en​tity or paras​tatal and that may carry an im​plicit or
ex​plicit sov​er​eign guar​an​tee. A state-owned util​ity can be con​sid​ered ei​ther
sub-sov​er​eign or quasi-sov​er​eign de​pend​ing on its own​er​ship and op​er​at​-
ing struc​ture. Sub-sov​er​eign and quasi-sov​er​eign bonds have been used to
fi​nance power pro​jects across the world but are not yet a com​mon means
of fi​nanc​ing for power pro​jects in emerg​ing mar​kets.

Re​fi​nanc​ing
As a pro​ject ma​tures and be​comes less risky, a pro​ject com​pany may re​fi​-
nance its debt. Typ​i​cally, re​fi​nanc​ing im​plies re​plac​ing an ear​lier loan with
a new loan that has more favourable terms, in​clud​ing, for ex​am​ple, an ex​-
ten​sion of debt ma​tu​rity, or tenor ex​ten​sion. The more favourable terms
re​flect the re​duced level of risk.

Yield Com​pa​nies (Yield Cos)

An​other struc​ture that has emerged for fi​nanc​ing, typ​i​cally once a pro​ject
or se​ries of pro​jects have reached their re​spec​tive com​mer​cial op​er​a​tions
date (COD), is a yield co. A yield co is a hold​ing com​pany that a de​vel​-
oper/spon​sor may form com​prised of its in​ter​est in a pro​ject com​pany or

43
 SOURCES OF FINANCING

com​pa​nies that have reached COD and are earn​ing rev​enues. They are not
yet com​monly seen in emerg​ing mar​kets, but this can change as mar​kets
ma​ture.

Pub​lic Of​fer​ings
Fi​nally, an ini​tial pub​lic of​fer​ing (IPO), is the first sale of eq​uity in​ter​est, or
stock, by a pri​vate com​pany to the pub​lic. An IPO of​fers in​vestors in a pro​-
ject com​pany the chance to raise cap​i​tal for the com​pany from the pub​lic.
Mar​ket con​di​tions and cy​cles, as well as a com​pany’s par​tic​u​lar fi​nan​cials
and per​for​mance, play a large role in the per​ceived at​trac​tive​ness and suc​-
cess of IPOs.

44
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

3.4. Particular Aspects of Project

Finance
Tenor / Length of Loans
Given the large cap​i​tal costs of a power pro​ject and the sig​nif​i​cant sums
bor​rowed, it may take time for a pro​ject com​pany to gen​er​ate suf​fi​cient
rev​enue to pay back the loan with​out com​pro​mis​ing the op​er​a​tion of the
pro​ject. Pro​ject fi​nance, as a fund​ing struc​ture, lends it​self to longer tenor
fi​nanc​ing with re​pay​ment pe​ri​ods rang​ing typ​i​cally be​tween 12 to 18 years
in de​vel​op​ing coun​tries, which can vary de​pend​ing on the depth of the
cap​i​tal mar​ket in the par​tic​u​lar host coun​try (i.e. the avail​abil​ity of long-
term funds). This lim​its the num​ber of com​mer​cial banks able to lend (par​-
tic​u​larly if any lend​ing is in a local, as op​posed to a re​serve cur​rency).

Refinancing Post-Completion
Fi​nanc​ing risks on a pro​ject are broadly cat​e​gorised into pre-com​ple​tion
and post-com​ple​tion risks. The pre-com​ple​tion phase refers to the pe​riod
dur​ing which the pro​ject is being con​structed whilst the post-com​ple​tion
pe​riod com​mences at the point that the plant is fully op​er​a​tional and pro​-
duc​ing cash flow.

A pro​por​tion​ately larger com​po​nent of pro​ject risk is at​trib​ut​able to the

pre-com​ple​tion pe​riod lead​ing up to suc​cess​ful com​mis​sion​ing and op​er​a​-
tion of the plant. Once a pro​ject is built and op​er​at​ing suc​cess​fully, this el​e​-
ment of risk is ef​fec​tively re​moved. Pro​ject com​pa​nies at this stage may
seek to cap​i​talise on this de-risk​ing by seek​ing a re​fi​nanc​ing of the re​main​-
ing out​stand​ing debt at po​ten​tially bet​ter rates and/or terms.

Lenders are aware of this and may build in early pre-pay​ment penal​ties
into their loan agree​ments to dis​cour​age re​fi​nanc​ing. On the other hand,
some lenders may be sat​is​fied that they have re​ceived ad​e​quately priced re​-
turns dur​ing the riski​est phase of a pro​ject and be pleased that cap​i​tal is

45
 PARTICULAR ASPECTS OF PROJECT FINANCE

freed up for in​vest​ment in other pro​jects. This is par​tic​u​larly true for com​-
mer​cial banks who have a par​tic​u​lar focus on re-al​lo​cat​ing cap​i​tal.

Loan agree​ments may con​tain built-in in​cen​tives for re​fi​nanc​ing where in​-
ter​est rates ratchet up after the first few years of op​er​a​tions to en​tice the
pro​ject com​pany to re​fi​nance the pro​ject and pay lenders out. Equally, the
pro​ject com​pany may ne​go​ti​ate down​ward ratch​ets of mar​gins at a pre-de​-
ter​mined date cer​tain dur​ing the op​er​a​tions pe​riod, mean​ing the in​ter​est
rates will lower as the pro​ject con​tin​ues to op​er​ate. Lenders will want to
en​sure that, if they agree to this, their total re​cov​ery over the life of the
loan re​mains at a level com​men​su​rate with the risk pro​file for the given pe​-
riod (which may mean higher pric​ing dur​ing the early years of op​er​a​tion).

Tenor Extensions
Cer​tain lenders, par​tic​u​larly com​mer​cial banks, may have lim​its on the
length of time for which they are able to lend. Pro​jects can be struc​tured so
that other fi​nance par​ties (like Mul​ti​lat​er​als or other DFIs) "buy" or guar​-
an​tee the re​pay​ment of the ex​ist​ing debt at a point in time (e.g. after the
sec​ond year of op​er​a​tions) at a pre-de​ter​mined price. This ef​fec​tively
short​ens the con​trac​tual lend​ing pe​riod for the com​mer​cial bank, whilst re​-
tain​ing some flex​i​bil​ity on fur​ther ex​ten​sions of tenor at the point of re​fi​-
nanc​ing. This re​fi​nanc​ing can often be at the pro​ject com​pany's re​quest (so
that it can test the mar​ket at the time to see if other op​tions are avail​able).

When re​ly​ing on local banks as lenders, how​ever, the re​fi​nanc​ing trig​gers

often need to be manda​tory as part of the fi​nanc​ing, such that it im​plies a
shorter con​trac​tual lend​ing pe​riod for pur​poses of bal​ance sheet con​straints
and reg​u​la​tory re​stric​tions on term bor​row​ings. This type of struc​tur​ing
can be used par​tic​u​larly when local cur​rency is fi​nanc​ing a pro​ject but due
to lim​ited liq​uid​ity in the local cap​i​tal mar​kets, only lim​ited tenors are
avail​able.

Reserve vs. Local Currency Financing Implications

46
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

Reserve vs. Local Currency Financing Implications

Power pro​jects can be fi​nanced in ei​ther local cur​rency or re​serve cur​rency.
Local cur​rency is the cur​rency of the ju​ris​dic​tion in which the pro​ject is to
be con​structed and op​er​ate, and re​serve cur​rency is a cur​rency held in sig​-
nif​i​cant quan​ti​ties as part of gov​ern​ments’ or in​sti​tu​tions’ for​eign ex​change
re​serves. Re​serve cur​ren​cies, like U.S. Dol​lars and Euros, are com​monly
used in power and in​fra​struc​ture trans​ac​tions. Re​serve cur​ren​cies are often
in​ter​change​ably re​ferred to as hard cur​ren​cies, that is, cur​ren​cies that are
widely ac​cepted as a form of pay​ment around the world, typ​i​cally orig​i​nat​-
ing from highly in​dus​tri​alised coun​tries.

Reserve Currency Financing as the Status Quo

In emerg​ing mar​kets, in​clud​ing in sub-Sa​ha​ran Africa, power pro​jects are
typ​i​cally en​tirely, or mostly, fi​nanced in re​serve cur​rency. It is often not
pos​si​ble, due to liq​uid​ity con​straints and mar​ket avail​abil​ity, to fi​nance
long-term debt in local cur​rency in the mag​ni​tude re​quired by many grid-
scale power pro​jects.

Specif​i​cally, debt providers, such as in​ter​na​tional com​mer​cial banks, DFIs,

ECAs, and Mul​ti​lat​eral De​vel​op​ment Banks (MDBs) are often un​able to
lend in local cur​rency in emerg​ing mar​kets. Cer​tain DFIs are able to pro​-
vide local cur​rency fi​nanc​ing, but typ​i​cally, local banks are the best source
of local cur​rency-de​nom​i​nated debt. In the power sec​tor, how​ever, local
com​mer​cial banks may not have the abil​ity to fi​nance a loan in local cur​-
rency for the amount and tenor re​quired.

To the ex​tent local cur​rency fi​nanc​ing is an op​tion, lenders tend to charge

lower rates in re​serve cur​rency than in local cur​rency, as local cur​rency is
typ​i​cally more volatile and prone to de​pre​ci​a​tion vis-à-vis re​serve cur​ren​-
cies. Thus, re​serve cur​rency lend​ing rates are lower. It has con​ven​tion​ally
been pre​sented as a “cheaper fi​nanc​ing op​tion.” In truth, this as​sess​ment
does not ac​count for local cur​rency de​pre​ci​a​tion or de​val​u​a​tion, as is cur​-
rently rife in emerg​ing mar​kets dur​ing pe​ri​ods of global com​mod​ity and
eco​nomic down cy​cles. Nonethe​less, nom​i​nal rates for re​serve cur​rency

47
 PARTICULAR ASPECTS OF PROJECT FINANCE

loans are al​most al​ways lower than for local cur​rency loans in emerg​ing
and fron​tier mar​kets.

In an emerg​ing mar​ket, the de​vel​oper typ​i​cally in​sists on hav​ing a re​serve

cur​rency de​nom​i​nated PPA (typ​i​cally, U.S. Dol​lars) to match its re​served
cur​rency bor​row​ings, due to per​ceived cur​rency de​pre​ci​a​tion risk as​so​ci​-
ated with the local cur​rency.

At the same time, an off​taker, like a util​ity, al​most al​ways charges an elec​-
tric​ity tar​iff to local end-users, and thereby earns rev​enue in local cur​rency.
This re​sults in a cur​rency mis​match, whereby power fi​nance and PPAs in
emerg​ing mar​kets are de​nom​i​nated in a dif​fer​ent cur​rency than the rev​-
enue stream of the off​taker. This mis​match is sig​nif​i​cant and strains the
over​all risk pro​file of a power in​vest​ment in the fol​low​ing ways:
• First, par​tic​u​larly in times of local cur​rency de​pre​ci​a​tion and volatil​ity,
it re​duces an off​taker’s abil​ity to meet its pay​ment oblig​a​tions to a
power pro​ducer (in this in​stance, the pro​ject com​pany) under a re​serve
cur​rency-de​nom​i​nated PPA.
• Sec​ondly, if a cur​rency de​pre​ci​a​tion strains an off​taker’s abil​ity to pay
the pro​ject com​pany, it can re​sult in the pro​ject com​pany lack​ing funds
to repay its re​serve cur​rency-de​nom​i​nated debt.

A lender in​vest​ing in a power pro​ject in an emerg​ing coun​try will con​sider

cur​rency risk when eval​u​at​ing the over​all at​trac​tive​ness of a pro​ject and
may ei​ther be less in​clined to lend to a pro​ject com​pany in an emerg​ing
mar​ket with​out some risk mit​i​gant or may de​mand a higher in​ter​est rate.

The di​a​gram below rep​re​sents the po​ten​tial cur​rency mis​match.

48
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

Potential Currency Mismatch

Project Lender Project

Funding Sources Lenders

Hybrid Reserve/Local Currency Financing

While fi​nanc​ing power in​vest​ment ex​clu​sively in local cur​rency may not
be pos​si​ble, it may be pos​si​ble to de​velop a hy​brid so​lu​tion by fi​nanc​ing
part of a power pro​ject in local cur​rency and the re​main​der in the re​serve
cur​rency. The pri​mary ad​van​tage of hav​ing a por​tion of a power pro​ject fi​-
nanc​ing de​nom​i​nated in local cur​rency is to avoid cur​rency mis​match and
the as​so​ci​ated risks, at least for that por​tion of the pro​ject. An​other key
ben​e​fit is that local cur​rency fi​nanc​ing is more likely to at​tract local sources
of fi​nanc​ing, thereby help​ing deepen local mar​kets, and help​ing de​velop
local mar​ket liq​uid​ity.

Hedging Instruments
Hedg​ing is used by the pro​ject com​pany to pro​tect it against move​ments in
cur​rency ex​change rates and in​ter​est rates and often, com​mod​ity price fluc​-
tu​a​tions. Whilst hedg​ing in​stru​ments can be highly com​plex, in a pro​ject
fi​nance con​text they are usu​ally kept rel​a​tively sim​ple in form. Typ​i​cally,
the fi​nan​cial in​sti​tu​tions pro​vid​ing the hedg​ing in​stru​ments are them​selves
se​nior lenders to the pro​ject com​pany.

Foreign Exchange Hedging

49
 PARTICULAR ASPECTS OF PROJECT FINANCE

Foreign Exchange Hedging

A typ​i​cal for​eign ex​change hedg​ing agree​ment is where the pro​ject com​-
pany agrees to pur​chase on a fu​ture date a fixed amount of one cur​rency in
ex​change for an​other cur​rency, at a prior agreed rate of ex​change. This
mit​i​gates the risk of cur​rency fluc​tu​a​tions for a pe​riod of time (de​pend​ing
on the cur​rency) dur​ing the term of the pro​ject; cru​cial where for ex​am​ple,
there are ei​ther costs and rev​enues in mul​ti​ple cur​ren​cies.

Commodity Price Hedging

In a power pro​ject where the pro​ject com​pany will be pur​chas​ing a com​-
mod​ity such as heavy fuel oil, or gas, and where the price is not fixed in ad​-
vance under a fuel sup​ply agree​ment, the pro​ject com​pany may enter into a
for​ward sale agree​ment under which it agrees to buy a fixed quan​tity of the
fuel on a fixed fu​ture date, at a prior agreed price. This gives both the pro​-
ject com​pany and the lenders cer​tainty as to the pro​ject com​pany’s ex​pen​di​-
ture on fuel or other such com​mod​ity.

Interest Rate Hedging

Lenders may offer loans to the pro​ject com​pany with ei​ther fixed in​ter​est
rates or “float​ing” in​ter​est rates. Where rates are “float​ing”, lenders may
charge a fixed rate over and above a fluc​tu​at​ing or "float​ing" base rate, such
as the Lon​don in​ter​bank rate (LIBOR) for a par​tic​u​lar cur​rency. This base
rate is es​sen​tially the rate that banks lend to each other. Be​cause an un​der​-
ly​ing rate like LIBOR can change over time, lead​ing to po​ten​tial un​cer​-
tainty as to the pro​ject com​pany's fi​nanc​ing costs over the life of the loan,
lenders and the pro​ject com​pany alike may pre​fer to "fix" these float​ing
rates by hav​ing the pro​ject com​pany enter into long-term in​ter​est rate
swaps. If float​ing rates rise, the pro​ject com​pany knows that it will al​ways
have funds avail​able to it to make the float​ing rate pay​ments to lenders (as
it is re​ceiv​ing those funds from the hedg​ing banks) whilst know​ing that it
never has to pay more than the "fixed" rate to the hedg​ing banks. The pro​-
ject com​pany, there​fore, caps its ex​po​sure to in​ter​est rate in​creases.

50
FINANCING STRUCTURES

Interest Rate Swap

51
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

3.5. Stakeholders
A typ​i​cal lim​ited re​course pro​ject fi​nance struc​ture in an en​ergy pro​ject in​-
cludes the in​volve​ment of sev​eral stake​hold​ers as il​lus​trated in the table
below:

52
STAKEHOLDERS

53
 FINANCING STRUCTURES

3.6. Summary of Key Points

Principal Power Project Financing Models
There are four fi​nanc​ing mod​els that are pri​mar​ily used to fi​nance power
pro​jects:
• Host gov​ern​ment fi​nanc​ing;
• De​vel​oper fi​nanc​ing;
• Re​source-based in​fra​struc​ture fi​nanc​ing; and
• Pro​ject fi​nanc​ing.

Each model is dis​tin​guished by which party or par​ties bear re​spon​si​bil​ity

for fund​ing the up​front costs of a pro​ject. Each al​ter​na​tive pre​sents its own
ad​van​tages and dis​ad​van​tages re​lated to tim​ing, cost, and com​plex​ity of
struc​tur​ing and im​ple​men​ta​tion.

Project Finance Essentials

The Role of a Project Company

The pro​ject com​pany is a new, legally dis​tinct, and ring-fenced en​tity, es​-
tab​lished specif​i​cally for the pur​pose of own​ing, con​struct​ing, and op​er​at​-
ing a pro​ject.

Limited or Non-Recourse Financing

Pro​ject fi​nance is a form of lim​ited or non-re​course fi​nanc​ing. In lim​ited
re​course fi​nanc​ing, the share​hold​ers have, in ad​di​tion to their eq​uity con​-
tri​bu​tions, lim​ited li​a​bil​ity for the debts and oblig​a​tions of the pro​ject com​-
pany, and in non-re​course fi​nanc​ing, they have no li​a​bil​ity for the debts
and oblig​a​tions of the pro​ject com​pany.

Key Debt and Equity Players and Stakeholders

54
 SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

Key Debt and Equity Players and Stakeholders

The key play​ers and stake​hold​ers in a pro​ject fi​nance trans​ac​tion typ​i​cally
in​clude the fol​low​ing:

Sponsors / Developers Debt and Equity Providers

Transaction Advisor and Arranger Security Agent and Facility Agent

Key Documents and Agreements

Key fi​nanc​ing doc​u​ments in a pro​ject fi​nance trans​ac​tion typ​i​cally in​clude:

Common Terms Facility Agreements

Agreement

Security Documents Accounts Agreement

Intercreditor Agreement Hedging Documents

Direct Agreements Shareholder Agreements and Equity Subscription

Agreements

Sources of Financing
Pro​jects are typ​i​cally fi​nanced through a com​bi​na​tion of debt and eq​uity.
The split be​tween the debt and eq​uity in a pro​ject is re​ferred to as the level
of gear​ing or lever​age. If a sov​er​eign is pro​vid​ing a pro​ject with credit
sup​port, then it needs to un​der​stand the gear​ing ratio to de​ter​mine the re​-
sult​ing li​a​bil​ity im​pli​ca​tions.

Types of Investment Financing

There are var​i​ous types of in​vest​ment fi​nanc​ing avail​able to a pro​ject com​-
pany. These re​late to the dif​fer​ent tiers of fund​ing struc​tured within a pro​-
ject, which have dif​fer​ing re​pay​ment pro​files and rates of re​turn.

The types of in​vest​ment fi​nanc​ing in​clude:

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 FINANCING STRUCTURES

Se​nior Debt and Mez​za​nine / Sub​or​di​nated Debt

The typ​i​cal providers of such debt are DFIs, Mul​ti​lat​er​als, Com​mer​cial
banks, ECAs, Syn​di​ca​tion Lenders.

Eq​uity (Strate​gic and Fi​nan​cial)

The typ​i​cal providers of eq​uity are the spon​sor/de​vel​oper, pri​vate eq​uity
funds, ven​ture cap​i​tal and im​pact in​vestors.

Cap​i​tal Mar​kets
Cap​i​tal mar​kets broadly refers to mar​kets in which one can buy and sell
debt and eq​uity in​stru​ments. These mar​kets in​clude both in​ter​na​tional and
local cap​i​tal mar​kets. The cap​i​tal mar​kets for the pur​chase and sale of debt
and eq​uity in​ter​ests in power pro​ject fi​nance trans​ac​tions in emerg​ing
mar​kets are still de​vel​op​ing and may be​come more preva​lent in the years to
come.

Some forms of cap​i​tal mar​ket tools and prod​ucts in​clude:

• Pro​ject bonds;
• Sov​er​eign and sub-sov​er​eign bonds (in​clud​ing quasi-sov​er​eign
bonds);
• Yield com​pa​nies; and
• Pub​lic of​fer​ings.

Particular Aspects of Project Finance

There are cer​tain as​pects par​tic​u​lar to pro​ject fi​nance deals.
• Length of tenor: Pro​ject fi​nance deals tend to have long tenors/length
of loans, due to the long pe​riod of time re​quired for pro​ject com​pa​nies
to gen​er​ate enough rev​enue to pay back in​vestors.

Tenor ex​ten​sions: Cer​tain lenders may have lim​its on the length of

56
 SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

• Tenor ex​ten​sions: Cer​tain lenders may have lim​its on the length of

time for which they can lend, so a pro​ject fi​nance deal can in​volve tenor
ex​ten​sions. This is when other par​ties buy or guar​an​tee the re​pay​ment
of ex​ist​ing debt at a later point in time at a pre-de​ter​mined price.
• Re​fi​nanc​ing: Re​fi​nanc​ing a com​pany’s out​stand​ing debt is com​mon
prac​tice once power plant con​struc​tion has been com​pleted and de-
risked and the pro​ject is op​er​a​tional.

Local vs. Reserve Currency and Currency Mismatch

Power pro​jects can be fi​nanced in ei​ther local cur​rency or re​serve cur​rency.
In prac​tice, it is often chal​leng​ing to fi​nance pro​jects en​tirely in local cur​-
rency in de​vel​op​ing and emerg​ing mar​kets. As a re​sult, there is often a cur​-
rency mis​match: for ex​am​ple, a PPA may be de​nom​i​nated in a dif​fer​ent
cur​rency than the rev​enue stream of an off​taker. Cur​rency mis​match is rel​-
e​vant be​cause it strains the over​all risk pro​file of a power in​vest​ment.

Hedging Instruments
To avoid or mit​i​gate some of the pay​ment risks as​so​ci​ated with cur​rency
mis​match, some pro​jects are fi​nanced in part in local cur​rency and in part in
re​serve cur​rency. In ad​di​tion, a pro​ject com​pany can em​ploy cer​tain hedg​-
ing in​stru​ments to hedge – or pro​tect – against com​mod​ity price, and in​ter​-
est rate fluc​tu​a​tion. Hedg​ing may in​volve com​plex fi​nan​cial in​stru​ments,
but at its core, pro​vides a way of in​sur​ing against cer​tain price move​ments
that can af​fect the pay​ment (and re-pay​ment) struc​ture of a deal.

57
4. Risk Assessment,
Pricing and
Allocation
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Risk Assessment and Tools
4.3. Risk Pricing and Allocation
4.4. Managing Political and Payment Risks
4.5. Summary of Key Points

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 RISK ASSESSMENT, PRICING AND ALLOCATION

4.1. Introduction
To eval​u​ate the eco​nom​ics of a power pro​ject and in turn, se​cure fi​nanc​ing
for a pro​ject, all stake​hold​ers must con​duct a de​tailed up​front as​sess​ment of
the pro​ject risks. This in​cludes iden​ti​fy​ing all pos​si​ble risks, un​der​stand​ing
how those risks are al​lo​cated amongst stake​hold​ers, and pric​ing those risks.

Each stake​holder group will con​duct its own as​sess​ment of risk, based on
their re​spec​tive as​sump​tions, ob​jec​tives and tol​er​ance for risk and reach its
own con​clu​sions re​lat​ing to the al​lo​ca​tion and pric​ing of that risk.

The de​ci​sion on whether or not to as​sume a par​tic​u​lar risk may de​pend on:
• how a party per​ceives that risk;
• the like​li​hood of its oc​cur​rence;
• the sever​ity of its im​pact;
• the level of con​trol they have over that par​tic​u​lar risk;
• the avail​abil​ity of mit​i​gat​ing in​stru​ments for the risk;
• the risk tol​er​ance of each party for a par​tic​u​lar risk; and
• the cost of those in​stru​ments.

In the case of most IPP power pro​jects, there are two prin​ci​pal risk tak​ers
who must agree on the al​lo​ca​tion and pric​ing of risk: (i) the off​taker, typ​i​-
cally a gov​ern​ment owned power util​ity, and (ii) the spon​sors, rep​re​sent​ing
the pro​ject in​vestors. Lenders and other fi​nanc​ing providers (such as let​ter-
of-credit is​su​ing banks and hedge providers) also ac​tively par​tic​i​pate in the
risk al​lo​ca​tion process, as they ef​fec​tively be​come ex​posed to all of the al​lo​-
cated risks through their fi​nanc​ing. Other risks may also be shifted, to
some ex​tent, to in​sur​ers and other pro​ject par​tic​i​pants, though at a cost to
the pro​ject.

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 RISK ASSESSMENT, PRICING AND ALLOCATION

4.2. Risk Assessment

Understanding the Project Value Chain
Fully iden​ti​fy​ing pro​ject risks re​quires an un​der​stand​ing of the value chain
for elec​tric​ity, since risks can arise at dif​fer​ent points of the value chain. As
sum​marised in the graphic below, the power pro​ject value chain starts with
fuel sup​ply to the plant, then power gen​er​a​tion from the plant, pur​chase of
the power from the gen​er​a​tion plant, trans​mis​sion of the power to the dis​-
tri​b​u​tion com​pa​nies, and dis​tri​b​u​tion of the power to the end-users of the
elec​tric​ity.

Project Value Chain

These dif​fer​ent links in the value chain exist re​gard​less of whether a util​ity
is bun​dled or un​bun​dled, the only dif​fer​ence being whether all the func​-
tional areas are housed within the same en​tity or have been split off into
in​de​pen​dently-man​aged cor​po​rate en​ti​ties.

Risk Assessment by Offtaker / Government

The start​ing point for a gov​ern​ment's risk as​sess​ment of a power pro​ject is
based on its per​spec​tive of the sec​tor's needs and its own in​ter​nal cost​ing of
pro​vid​ing power. This in​cludes as​sess​ments of sup​ply and de​mand and the
ap​pro​pri​ate mix of fuel sources as di​rected by gov​ern​ment pol​icy.

This is likely to in​clude some form of tar​iff bench​mark​ing for dif​fer​ent

power tech​nolo​gies and by fuel re​source. Many gov​ern​ments pub​lish a

60
 RISK ASSESSMENT

multi-year tar​iff sched​ule re​flect​ing their es​ti​ma​tion of what a sus​tain​able

tar​iff path is, in light of their view of the pre​vail​ing mar​ket con​di​tions.

When eval​u​at​ing a spe​cific power pro​ject, the gov​ern​ment may focus on

the tar​iff or may look into wider macro​eco​nomic and sec​toral fac​tors (such
as the broader en​ergy mix) in as​sess​ing the at​trac​tive​ness of that par​tic​u​lar
pro​ject. Where the con​sumer tar​iff the off​taker charges is not cost-re​flec​-
tive (and un​able to fully cover the cost of the power pur​chased from the
IPP), the gov​ern​ment must de​ter​mine how best to deal with the ex​po​sure.
This can be done in a num​ber of ways, in​clud​ing (i) pro​vid​ing some form
of sub​sidy, (ii) pro​vid​ing more cap​i​tal​i​sa​tion to the off​taker to be able to
cush​ion the dif​fer​ence or (iii) in​creas​ing the con​sumer tar​iff to a cost-re​-
flec​tive level.

There are, how​ever, a myr​iad of other risks that the off​taker/gov​ern​ment

must take into ac​count, all of which im​pact on its abil​ity to meet its oblig​a​-
tions. The off​taker's risks in​clude:
• de​mand risk of pur​chas​ing the gen​er​ated power and re​selling it to dis​-
tri​b​u​tion com​pa​nies;
• mak​ing monthly ca​pac​ity and dis​patched en​ergy pay​ments to the IPP
(in​clud​ing for pe​ri​ods when the power can​not be evac​u​ated from the
plant due to no fault of the IPP);
• trans​mis​sion risk;
• dis​tri​b​u​tion risk;
• billing and col​lec​tion risk; and
• in​ter​con​nec​tion risks, such as fuel trans​porta​tion and power trans​mis​-
sion risk (that could im​peril a power pro​ject by in​ter​rupt​ing fuel sup​ply
or pre​vent power from being evac​u​ated).

Risk Assessment by Developer

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 RISK ASSESSMENT, PRICING AND ALLOCATION

Risk Assessment by Developer

De​vel​op​ers un​der​take a de​tailed as​sess​ment and pric​ing of risk by de​tail​ing
a busi​ness plan and fi​nan​cial model which cap​tures all ex​pected costs, in​-
clud​ing up​front cap​i​tal ex​pen​di​ture, fi​nanc​ing charges and op​er​a​tional
costs. The de​vel​op​ers' risks in​clude the risk of de​vel​op​ing the power pro​-
ject, rais​ing fi​nance to build the plant, se​cur​ing fuel sup​ply for the plant,
con​struct​ing the plant, and op​er​at​ing and main​tain​ing it for the full term of
the PPA. De​vel​op​ers often draw on the ex​per​tise of spe​cial​ist con​sul​tants
in the fields of tech​ni​cal, legal, mar​ket, fi​nan​cial, so​cio-en​vi​ron​men​tal, and
in​sur​ance mat​ters to en​sure the ac​cu​racy of in​puts.

Whilst de​vel​op​ers may be pri​mar​ily con​cerned with the over​all eco​nom​ics

cap​tured within its pro​ject as re​flected through the share​holder in​ter​nal
rate of re​turn (IRR), the de​vel​oper should also be cog​nisant of the tar​iff to
en​sure it is eco​nom​i​cally sus​tain​able for the coun​try in the long term. A
long-term view on tar​iffs is par​tic​u​larly im​por​tant as there is a rea​son​able
ex​pec​ta​tion that the cost of de​liv​ered power to the grid will re​duce over
time as more sup​ply comes on​line and tech​no​log​i​cal ad​vances are made.

Risk Assessment by Lender

Sim​i​lar to the de​vel​op​ers, lenders also re​quire de​tailed due dili​gence, often
sup​ported by in​de​pen​dent third-party con​sul​tants to as​sist in eval​u​at​ing
and as​sess​ing the va​lid​ity and ac​cu​racy of tech​ni​cal and eco​nomic as​sump​-
tions in the pro​ject's busi​ness plan and base fi​nan​cial model. Lenders and
de​vel​op​ers have dif​fer​ent risk tol​er​ance thresh​olds and whilst the risk as​-
sess​ment of lenders may be sim​i​lar to that of the de​vel​oper, the con​clu​sions
and out​come of the as​sess​ment will di​verge. In ad​di​tion, dif​fer​ent types of
lenders may have dif​fer​ing views and ca​pac​i​ties for par​tic​i​pat​ing in risk.

Within the lender group, there could also be dif​fer​ing per​spec​tives on

some of the al​lo​cated risks, par​tic​u​larly when there are both com​mer​cial
lenders and de​vel​op​ment fi​nan​cial in​sti​tu​tions (DFIs) in​volved. Due to
their de​vel​op​ment man​date, DFI lenders tend not to be able to share ad​di​-

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 RISK ASSESSMENT

tional po​lit​i​cal risk mit​i​ga​tion in​stru​ments such as po​lit​i​cal risk in​sur​ance

poli​cies.

Lenders, in par​tic​u​lar, focus on the "bank​a​bil​ity" of a deal. What this

means for a lender is two things: first, that their re​turns, which are typ​i​-
cally capped in na​ture, should be suf​fi​cient to off​set the long-term risks of
the pro​ject in light of the rev​enue stream; and sec​ondly that the over​all el​e​-
ments of the deal add up to one that is sus​tain​able with a min​i​mal like​li​-
hood of de​fault.

Risk Assessment Tools

Hav​ing iden​ti​fied the im​por​tance of eval​u​at​ing risk, the table below pro​-
vides the list of ad​vi​sors and con​sul​tants avail​able to stake​hold​ers to en​sure
that risks have been prop​erly eval​u​ated, quan​ti​fied, and al​lo​cated to the
party best suited to man​age the risk. It is im​por​tant to note that while some
stake​hold​ers may have in-house ca​pa​bil​i​ties to eval​u​ate and as​sess risk, ex​-
ter​nal con​sul​tants can pro​vide ad​di​tional ex​per​tise and val​i​da​tion dur​ing
the risk iden​ti​fi​ca​tion and as​sess​ment process. We have sug​gested below
where stake​hold​ers should or may choose to hire ex​ter​nal ad​vi​sors. "Gov​-
ern​ment" in​cludes the off​taker in this con​text. Where in square brack​ets,
this is less com​mon.

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 RISK ASSESSMENT, PRICING AND ALLOCATION

Third party Role User

consultant

Legal advisor Advises on all contractual matters to Government

ensure legal, valid and enforceable Developer
documentation Lender

Technical Comments on development cost, [Government]

consultant appropriate technology, operating Developer
parameters and overall view on Lender
completeness and accuracy of key cost
drivers

Market consultant Provides a detailed assessment of the Government

underlying market, including supply- Developer
demand and cost of delivered power
analyses

Insurance Advises on the adequacy of commercial Developer

consultant insurances during the construction and Lender
operational phases

Social and Ensures best practices are applied [Government]

environmental towards minimising the impact of the Developer
consultant project on the environment and society Lender
in line with local and international
standards

Model auditor Ensures overall accuracy and Developer

operational functionality of the financial Lender
model, which ultimately reflects the
agreed tariff and shareholder IRR and
includes a review of tax assumptions.

It is im​por​tant to note that each stake​holder re​ly​ing on third-party con​sul​-

tants to eval​u​ate and ad​vise on the va​lid​ity and ac​cu​racy of tech​ni​cal, eco​-
nomic, com​mer​cial, and legal as​sump​tions, will ex​pect their ad​vi​sor to act
under a spe​cific duty of care rep​re​sent​ing their per​spec​tive and in​ter​ests.
This en​ables all stake​hold​ers to be in a po​si​tion to ef​fec​tively ne​go​ti​ate
con​trac​tual agree​ments which are aligned and thus will re​sult in pro​ject
im​ple​men​ta​tion. Gov​ern​ments can take ad​van​tage of these pro​fes​sional
ser​vices be​fore launch​ing com​pet​i​tive ten​ders or es​tab​lish​ing a pro​cure​-
ment process, al​low​ing them to at​tract se​ri​ous at​ten​tion from pri​vate sec​-
tor de​vel​op​ers.

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 RISK ASSESSMENT

The end re​sult of risk as​sess​ment and pric​ing is trans​lated into a cost of de​-
liv​ered power to the off​taker, re​ferred to as the tar​iff on the one hand, and
the ul​ti​mate re​turn to the share​hold​ers of the IPP on the other hand, re​-
ferred to as the share​holder re​turn or share​holder IRR.

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 RISK ASSESSMENT, PRICING AND ALLOCATION

4.3. Risk Pricing and Allocation

Allocating Project Risk
The gen​eral prin​ci​ple of risk al​lo​ca​tion is that risk is al​lo​cated to the party
best placed to man​age or mit​i​gate that risk. How​ever, in prac​tice, par​ties
may de​vi​ate from this gen​eral prin​ci​ple, re​sult​ing in sig​nif​i​cant im​pact on
pro​ject eco​nom​ics.

Even when strictly fol​low​ing this prin​ci​ple, risk al​lo​ca​tion must still be
done in an eq​ui​table man​ner. To ar​rive at an eq​ui​table al​lo​ca​tion, three el​e​-
ments must be ful​filled: (i) each party fully un​der​stands the risks un​der​-
taken; (ii) the even​tual taker of risk is best po​si​tioned, will​ing and/or able
to take on that spe​cific risk; and (iii) each party is con​fi​dent that it is re​ceiv​-
ing eco​nomic value pro​por​tion​ate to the risk al​lo​cated to it.

Compromising on Risk
There are sce​nar​ios where a party that may not nec​es​sar​ily con​trol a risk, is
nonethe​less will​ing to take it for the right eco​nomic ben​e​fit or sim​ply to
get the deal fi​nanced. For ex​am​ple, a gov​ern​ment seek​ing to at​tract greater
pri​vate sec​tor in​vest​ment may agree to a lower tar​iff in ex​change for as​-
sum​ing cer​tain risks out​side of its con​trol. For in​stance, even if the off​taker
has no di​rect con​trol over the gov​ern​ment fuel sup​ply en​tity, it may agree
to take the risk of fuel sup​ply with a view to at​tract​ing in​vest​ment.

If a spon​sor agrees to take such a risk out​side of its con​trol, it may seek a
tar​iff which in turn re​sults into a higher IRR in re​turn. There is, how​ever,
a limit to the ex​tent to which par​ties can shift risk. Ul​ti​mately, the al​lo​ca​-
tion of risk must still re​sult in a bank​able and vi​able pro​ject. The di​a​gram
below high​lights some of the more per​ti​nent risks and il​lus​trates the sphere
of risk tol​er​ance for a gov​ern​ment on the one hand and a de​vel​oper on the
other hand. It also il​lus​trates the por​tion of risk which falls out​side of ei​-
ther gov​ern​ment or de​vel​op​ers.

66
 The Universe of Risk Tolerance

67
RISK PRICING AND ALLOCATION
 RISK ASSESSMENT, PRICING AND ALLOCATION

Uncontrollable / Unassessable Risks

In the risk as​sess​ment and pric​ing process, there may be cer​tain risks that
no party feels it is in a po​si​tion to as​sume. These risks may be largely un​-
con​trol​lable, such as force ma​jeure risks and macro-level mar​ket risk, but
they must, in prac​tice, still be al​lo​cated across par​ties.

Force ma​jeure, for ex​am​ple, can be po​lit​i​cal or nat​ural. Po​lit​i​cal force ma​-
jeure can occur within a coun​try (local po​lit​i​cal risk events) or em​anate
from out​side. Po​lit​i​cal force ma​jeure in​cludes events such as ex​pro​pri​a​tion,
war, wide​spread riots, ter​ror​ist at​tacks, change in law or the reg​u​la​tory or
tax regime in a coun​try, for​eign ex​change re​stric​tions, and ar​bi​trary re​vo​-
ca​tion of per​mits and ap​provals. Cer​tain po​lit​i​cal force ma​jeure events are
largely un​fore​see​able, such as riots and ter​ror​ist at​tacks, while local po​lit​i​-
cal risk events may in​clude events within the gov​ern​ment's con​trol, such as
ex​pro​pri​a​tion and changes in law/tax. Nat​ural force ma​jeure cov​ers a broad
range of nat​ural events, in​clud​ing weather con​di​tions that could im​peril a
pro​ject, such as hur​ri​canes, earth​quakes, and flood​ing.

As noted above, the gov​ern​ment may be bet​ter po​si​tioned to in​flu​ence (but

not con​trol) cer​tain of these un​con​trol​lable risks, for ex​am​ple, an emer​-
gency re​sponse to a nat​ural force ma​jeure or fis​cal man​age​ment of a major
mar​ket event. As a re​sult, some un​con​trol​lable risks are often borne by the
gov​ern​ment. Al​ter​na​tively, the gov​ern​ment may seek to shift the risk to
the de​vel​oper with a cost pass-through to the gov​ern​ment, such as when a
de​vel​oper se​cures in​sur​ance against force ma​jeure events and prices the
cost of ob​tain​ing and main​tain​ing such in​sur​ance into the tar​iff. In other
cases, par​ties may al​lo​cate such risks based on who is ad​versely im​pacted by
the risk event. For ex​am​ple, a nat​ural force ma​jeure that dam​ages the
trans​mis​sion grid may af​fect the off​taker's abil​ity to evac​u​ate power; al​ter​-
na​tively, an event that im​pacts the power plant it​self may af​fect the de​vel​-
oper's abil​ity to gen​er​ate power. Lastly, the gov​ern​ment and the de​vel​oper
may opt to share the risks by agree​ing to a cost-shar​ing mech​a​nism or
agree​ing on a re​lief al​ter​na​tive to com​pen​sa​tion, for ex​am​ple, an ex​ten​sion
of time.

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 RISK PRICING AND ALLOCATION

The Danger of Misallocated Risk

Ef​fec​tive risk al​lo​ca​tion and dis​tri​b​u​tion of eco​nomic ben​e​fit and re​ward
must re​sult in a long-term, sus​tain​able and vi​able power pro​ject. The al​lo​-
ca​tion of risk has a di​rect im​pact on the tar​iff. Mis​al​lo​cated risk can ren​der
an oth​er​wise vi​able pro​ject im​prac​ti​ca​ble or eco​nom​i​cally un​vi​able. For ex​-
am​ple, if the risk al​lo​ca​tion re​sults in a high tar​iff or ex​ces​sively high pro​-
ject re​turns rel​a​tive to the risk as​sumed, this could re​sult in off​taker de​fault
or can​cel​la​tion of the PPA. On the other hand, if tar​iffs are too low and/or
there are in​suf​fi​cient pro​ject re​turns, this could re​sult in the IPP's bank​-
ruptcy and/or aban​don​ment of pro​jects by share​hold​ers. In each in​stance,
in this ex​am​ple the par​ties would not have ad​e​quately as​sessed, al​lo​cated
ap​pro​pri​ately, or priced risk at the onset, even​tu​ally lead​ing to the fail​ure
of the pro​ject.

Un​der​stand​ing risks and cat​e​gories of risk when bank​ing a power trans​ac​-

tion mat​ters be​cause the abil​ity to mit​i​gate risk is key to at​tract​ing fund​ing.
Credit en​hance​ment is a means of re​duc​ing the price of cer​tain risks, fa​cil​i​-
tat​ing the fi​nanc​ing of trans​ac​tions that oth​er​wise could not be fi​nanced,
or could only be fi​nanced at pro​hib​i​tively high in​ter​est rates.

Pricing Project Risk

Hav​ing com​pleted its as​sess​ment of risk, and the al​lo​ca​tion thereof, each of
the key stake​hold​ers in a power pro​ject will as​sign a cost to those risks,
based on the al​lo​ca​tion and avail​able mit​i​ga​tion.

The de​vel​oper and eq​uity in​vestors will re​flect their eval​u​a​tion of the cost
of the risk in their pro​jected tar​get profit or in​ter​nal rate of re​turn (IRR).
The gov​ern​ment will form its view of what con​sti​tutes an af​ford​able and
ac​cept​able tar​iff based on its as​sess​ment of un​der​ly​ing so​cio-eco​nomic con​-
di​tions and all other risk fac​tors. Sim​i​larly, lenders will cal​cu​late the rate at
which they are will​ing to par​tic​i​pate in the lend​ing to take into ac​count
their over​all risk as​sess​ment, in​clud​ing any risk mit​i​gants that may be im​-
ple​mented, and en​sure that they meet their in​vest​ment re​turn re​quire​-
ments. This ad​just​ment of ne​go​ti​ated eco​nomic re​turns by the par​ties to

69
 RISK ASSESSMENT, PRICING AND ALLOCATION

ac​count for the per​ceived risk of a pro​ject is com​monly known as the “pric​-
ing” of risk. The pric​ing of risks by stake​hold​ers and lenders is not an in​de​-
pen​dent ex​er​cise, and par​ties can often in​flu​ence each other. For ex​am​ple, a
de​vel​oper/eq​uity in​vestor may seek a higher tar​iff to ac​count for the risk-
ad​justed in​ter​est rate set by the lender.

Both the de​vel​oper/eq​uity in​vestors and lenders will typ​i​cally pro​duce

their own fi​nan​cial model re​flect​ing their pric​ing of risk and how it im​-
pacts the re​turns they are will​ing to ac​cept or the price they are will​ing to
pay. The fi​nan​cial model as​signs risk in a quan​ti​ta​tive man​ner, with a par​-
tic​u​lar focus on data-dri​ven fac​tors such as ini​tial cap​i​tal ex​pen​di​ture, fuel
costs (for ther​mal pro​jects), re​source avail​abil​ity (for re​new​able pro​jects),
labour costs and fi​nanc​ing costs. There are also a num​ber of qual​i​ta​tive fac​-
tors that par​ties may quan​tify and in​cor​po​rate into their risk pric​ing, such
as per​cep​tion of po​lit​i​cal sta​bil​ity or growth po​ten​tial in a mar​ket.

Lenders may adopt more con​ser​v​a​tive as​sump​tions in their risk pric​ing

(such as the as​sumed rate of op​er​at​ing ef​fi​ciency of a plant). Sim​i​larly, the
gov​ern​ment may adopt more op​ti​mistic as​sump​tions (higher reg​u​lated
end-user tar​iffs).

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 RISK ASSESSMENT, PRICING AND ALLOCATION

4.5. Managing Political and

Payment Risks
Political Risk
In as​sess​ing the vi​a​bil​ity of a power pro​ject, spon​sors and lenders will need
to de​ter​mine the level of a wide spec​trum of risks, in​clud​ing con​struc​tion
risk, op​er​at​ing risk, cur​rency risk and po​lit​i​cal risk, among oth​ers.

Po​lit​i​cal risk rep​re​sents the prob​a​bil​ity of dis​rup​tion of the op​er​a​tions of

pri​vate sec​tor busi​nesses by po​lit​i​cal forces, ac​tions, or events, whether
they occur in the host coun​try or re​sult from changes in the in​ter​na​tional
en​vi​ron​ment.

Po​lit​i​cal risks are typ​i​cally those which the host gov​ern​ment is con​sid​ered
bet​ter placed to man​age. This man​age​ment will often em​body a wide range
of risks, in​clud​ing:
• Re​stric​tions on the con​vert​ibil​ity of local cur​rency into for​eign ex​-
change and its trans​fer out​side of the host gov​ern​ment;
• Ex​pro​pri​a​tion of own​er​ship, con​trol, or rights to an in​vest​ment;
• Breach of con​tract by the host gov​ern​ment of a con​trac​tual oblig​a​tion
(such as con​struc​tion of a trans​mis​sion line);
• Ter​ror​ism and acts of vi​o​lence;
• War, civil dis​tur​bances and in​sur​rec​tion;
• Changes in law, in​clud​ing tax​a​tion and other ad​verse legal or reg​u​la​tory
changes;
• Re​fusal of gov​ern​ment agen​cies to grant per​mits and ap​provals after the
de​vel​oper has ful​filled all nec​es​sary re​quire​ments; and
• Ac​tion or in​ac​tion by the host gov​ern​ment or gov​ern​ment au​thor​i​ties.

Such risks will often be cap​tured in a PPA through the con​cept of Po​lit​i​cal

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 MANAGING POLITICAL AND PAYMENT RISKS

Such risks will often be cap​tured in a PPA through the con​cept of Po​lit​i​cal
Force Ma​jeure or Po​lit​i​cal Risk Events. For ad​di​tional de​tail on po​lit​i​cal
force ma​jeure, please see Sec​tion 5.3 (Other Ex​tra​or​di​nary Pay​ments
Oblig​a​tions).

Payment Risk
Al​though the com​po​nents of the rev​enue stream (ca​pac​ity and en​ergy) are
con​trac​tu​ally agreed under the PPA, there still ex​ists the risk that the off​-
taker does not meet its on​go​ing pay​ments to the pro​ject com​pany when re​-
quired. This is known as pay​ment risk. Non-pay​ment by the off​taker will
im​pact the abil​ity of the pro​ject com​pany to meet its sched​uled pay​ment
oblig​a​tions which in​clude cap​i​tal costs, fixed op​er​at​ing costs and debt ser​-
vice. This risk is mag​ni​fied when the off​taker is seen as un​cred​it​wor​thy
and/or fi​nan​cially in​sol​vent.

Fur​ther​more, the ter​mi​na​tion pro​vi​sions in the PPA, which are fur​ther

dis​cussed in Sec​tion 5.4 (Ter​mi​na​tion and Trans​fer), will typ​i​cally stip​u​late
a ter​mi​na​tion amount to be paid by the off​taker to the pro​ject com​pany, in
ex​change for trans​fer of the power plant own​er​ship to the off​taker. The
ter​mi​na​tion amount payable is usu​ally large and, as with pay​ment risk, fun​-
ders are con​cerned as to whether the off​taker will be able to fund the ter​-
mi​na​tion oblig​a​tion in the event of a ter​mi​na​tion of the PPA.

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 RISK ASSESSMENT, PRICING AND ALLOCATION

4.6. Summary of Key Points

Risk Assessment, Pricing and Allocation
All stake​hold​ers must con​duct a de​tailed up​front as​sess​ment of the pro​ject
risks. This in​cludes iden​ti​fy​ing all pos​si​ble risks, un​der​stand​ing how those
risks are al​lo​cated amongst stake​hold​ers, and pric​ing those risks.

Risk Assessment by Project Parties

• Risk As​sess​ment by Off​taker/Gov​ern​ment: Gov​ern​ment's risk as​-
sess​ment of a power pro​ject in​cludes its per​spec​tive of the sec​tor's
needs, its own in​ter​nal cost​ing of pro​vid​ing power, in​clud​ing an as​sess​-
ment of sup​ply and de​mand.
• Risk As​sess​ment by De​vel​oper: De​vel​op​ers un​der​take a de​tailed as​-
sess​ment and pric​ing of risk that takes into ac​count de​vel​op​ing the
power pro​ject, rais​ing fi​nance to build, se​cur​ing fuel sup​ply for, if ap​-
plic​a​ble, con​struct​ing, and op​er​at​ing and main​tain​ing the plant for the
full term of the PPA.
• Risk As​sess​ment by Lender: Lenders typ​i​cally focus on the "bank​a​bil​-
ity" of a deal. Dif​fer​ent types of lenders may have dif​fer​ing views and
ob​jec​tives.

Risk Assessment Tools

Each stake​holder should seek ap​pro​pri​ate ad​vice to eval​u​ate the tech​ni​cal,
eco​nomic, com​mer​cial, and legal is​sues in the trans​ac​tion.

Risk Pricing and Allocation

Risks should be al​lo​cated to the party best placed to man​age or mit​i​gate
that risk.

Com​pro​mis​ing on Risk: There are sce​nar​ios where a party that may

73
 SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

• Com​pro​mis​ing on Risk: There are sce​nar​ios where a party that may

not nec​es​sar​ily con​trol a risk, but is nonethe​less will​ing to take that risk
for the right eco​nomic ben​e​fit or sim​ply to get the deal fi​nanced.
• Un​con​trol​lable/Unassess​able Risk: Par​ties need to as​sess and ne​go​-
ti​ate who should as​sume the risk for un​con​trol​lable-unassess​able risk.
• The Dan​ger of Mis​al​lo​cated Risk: Ef​fec​tive risk al​lo​ca​tion and dis​tri​-
b​u​tion of eco​nomic ben​e​fit and re​ward must re​sult in a long-term, sus​-
tain​able and vi​able power pro​ject. Mis​al​lo​cated risk can ren​der an oth​-
er​wise vi​able pro​ject im​prac​ti​ca​ble.
• Po​lit​i​cal Risk: This risk is typ​i​cally that which the host gov​ern​ment is
con​sid​ered bet​ter placed to man​age.
• Pay​ment Risk: Al​though the com​po​nents of the rev​enue stream (ca​-
pac​ity and/or en​ergy) are con​trac​tu​ally agreed under the PPA, there still
ex​ists the risk that the off​taker does not meet its on​go​ing pay​ments to
the pro​ject com​pany when re​quired. This is known as pay​ment risk.

74
5. Financial
Obligations
Supported by Credit
Support
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Recurring Payment Obligations under
the PPA
5.3. Other Extraordinary Payment
Obligations
5.4. Termination and Transfer
5.5. Summary of Key Points

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 FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS SUPPORTED BY CREDIT SUPPORT

5.1. Introduction
This sec​tion ex​am​ines the prin​ci​pal fi​nan​cial oblig​a​tions of an off​taker in a
power pur​chase trans​ac​tion and the role of credit en​hance​ment in re​duc​ing
the risk of non-ful​fil​ment of these oblig​a​tions. The oblig​a​tions of an off​-
taker in a power pur​chase agree​ment with an IPP are, broadly speak​ing, as
fol​lows:
• re​cur​ring pay​ment oblig​a​tions payable in the or​di​nary course of busi​-
ness;
• ex​tra​or​di​nary pay​ment oblig​a​tions that may arise over the life​cy​cle of a
pro​ject, but which do not arise in the or​di​nary course of busi​ness; and
• pay​ment oblig​a​tions that may arise upon the ter​mi​na​tion of a PPA,
prior to the ex​pi​ra​tion of its term or upon the ex​pro​pri​a​tion of ei​ther
the shares in a pro​ject com​pany or the plant it​self.

While these oblig​a​tions orig​i​nally re​side with the off​taker, in​vestors in an

IPP may re​quire some form of guar​an​tee or credit sup​port to re​duce or
mit​i​gate the risk of non-ful​fil​ment of these oblig​a​tions by the off​taker in
order to fi​nance a deal. The re​quire​ment for a guar​an​tee or credit sup​port,
and the scope of such guar​an​tee or sup​port, is usu​ally de​pen​dent on:
a. the in​vestor's as​sess​ment of the off​taker's cred​it​wor​thi​ness;
b. the off​taker's abil​ity to meet its cur​rent and fu​ture oblig​a​tions;
c. views of the rat​ings agen​cies; and
d. among other con​sid​er​a​tions, the in​vestor's abil​ity to price a bank​able
deal in light of this as​sess​ment.

In some cases, and as dis​cussed in more de​tail in this sec​tion and in Chap​ter
6 on Sov​er​eign Sup​port, the host gov​ern​ment may be​come di​rectly re​spon​-
si​ble for cer​tain of these fi​nan​cial oblig​a​tions. This may occur through the
ex​e​cu​tion of an Im​ple​men​ta​tion Agree​ment, which is a con​tract be​tween
an IPP and the host gov​ern​ment. In con​trast, a PPA is an agree​ment be​-
tween the IPP and the off​taker, which may be a gov​ern​ment-owned or
con​trolled en​tity, but is gen​er​ally not the host gov​ern​ment it​self.

76
 INTRODUCTION

Al​ter​na​tively, the host gov​ern​ment may un​der​take di​rect re​spon​si​bil​ity for

cer​tain of the off​taker's fi​nan​cial oblig​a​tions by of​fer​ing credit en​hance​-
ments, such as a sov​er​eign guar​an​tee.

Where the trans​ac​tion risks, in​clud​ing the off​taker's pay​ment risk, are as​-
sessed at a level where an in​vestor or lender can price a bank​able deal with​-
out sup​ple​men​tal credit sup​port, then such credit sup​port or guar​an​tee
may not be re​quired.

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 FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS SUPPORTED BY CREDIT SUPPORT

5.2. Recurring Payment

Obligations under the PPA
The first cat​e​gory of off​taker oblig​a​tions is re​cur​ring pay​ments that the
off​taker is re​quired to make to the power pro​ducer, in this case, the pro​ject
com​pany, in the or​di​nary course. These oblig​a​tions are typ​i​cally set forth
in a PPA and may be broadly re​ferred to as tar​iff pay​ments. Tar​iff pay​-
ments are the ac​tual price the off​taker pays to the pro​ject com​pany for ca​-
pac​ity made avail​able and/or en​ergy gen​er​ated.

Tar​iff pay​ments are im​por​tant in un​der​stand​ing how to fi​nance a power

pro​ject be​cause the pay​ment struc​ture and com​po​nents re​flect a pric​ing of
cer​tain risks and an al​lo​ca​tion of cer​tain risks be​tween the pro​ject com​pany
and off​taker. In​vestors will as​sess a tar​iff when eval​u​at​ing the over​all bank​-
a​bil​ity of a deal and their con​se​quent de​ci​sion to in​vest in it or not, and at
what price or ex​pected rate of re​turn. Un​der​stand​ing a tar​iff is key to un​-
der​stand​ing a con​di​tion or el​e​ment of a deal that may or may not drive the
need for credit sup​port.

Components of a Tariff
The com​po​nents of tar​iffs payable for a power gen​er​a​tion fa​cil​ity will vary
de​pend​ing on a num​ber of fac​tors.

Typ​i​cal com​po​nents of tar​iffs in​clude ca​pac​ity pay​ments and en​ergy pay​-

ments.

The sec​tions below sum​marise each of these com​po​nents. Prior to such

con​sid​er​a​tion, it is use​ful to note that tar​iff com​po​nents are often af​fected
by whether the power plant in ques​tion is dis​patch​able, mean​ing whether
the plant can re​spond to the in​struc​tion, or dis​patch, of a sys​tem op​er​a​tor
to pro​vide or vary its power. Dis​patch​a​bil​ity can de​pend on the tech​nol​ogy
used to gen​er​ate power. Dis​patch​able tech​nolo​gies in​clude gas-fired power
plants, coal-fired power plants, and hy​dro​elec​tric pro​jects with size​able
reser​voirs, and non-dis​patch​able tech​nolo​gies typ​i​cally in​clude solar PV,

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 RECURRING PAYMENT OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE PPA

run-of-river hydro, and wind, be​cause they are re​liant on nat​ural con​di​-
tions and ac​cord​ingly, may be in​ter​mit​tent. Tar​iffs for pro​jects using dis​-
patch​able tech​nolo​gies usu​ally have ca​pac​ity pay​ments and en​ergy charges;
pro​jects with non-dis​patch​able tech​nolo​gies usu​ally only pro​vide for the
pay​ment of en​ergy charges.

Sec​ond, tar​iffs may vary de​pend​ing on the time of use or pro​vi​sion of

power, and there may be dif​fer​ent cal​cu​la​tions ap​plic​a​ble to base​load, mid-
merit, peak​ing, and/or self-dis​patched power.

Capacity Payments
A ca​pac​ity pay​ment is a monthly charge for ca​pac​ity made avail​able to the
off​taker (or deemed to have been made avail​able), re​gard​less of whether
the off​taker ac​tu​ally dis​patches the plant.

The ca​pac​ity pay​ment is struc​tured and cal​cu​lated to en​able the pro​ject

com​pany to earn con​sis​tent and suf​fi​cient rev​enues under the PPA to en​-
able the pro​ject com​pany to:
•

in all cases re​gard​less of whether and to what ex​tent the off​taker ac​tu​ally
dis​patches the plant.

In cases where the power plant is un​avail​able or in​ca​pable of gen​er​at​ing

elec​tric​ity as a re​sult of risks the off​taker has agreed to as​sume (such as po​-
lit​i​cal force ma​jeure events, trans​mis​sion con​straints, changes in law, and
off​taker de​faults), the plant may be con​sid​ered to have deemed ca​pac​ity.
Deemed ca​pac​ity is plant ca​pac​ity deemed to be avail​able re​gard​less of
whether it is ac​tu​ally ca​pa​ble of de​liv​er​ing elec​tric​ity (net elec​tri​cal out​put).

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 FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS SUPPORTED BY CREDIT SUPPORT

Energy Payments
En​ergy pay​ments are monthly charges for the en​ergy dis​patched by and ac​-
tu​ally de​liv​ered to the off​taker. It is cal​cu​lated with ref​er​ence to the net
elec​tri​cal out​put of the plant that is de​liv​ered to an agreed de​liv​ery point. It
is usu​ally mea​sured in units of MWh or kWh.

For dis​patch​able plants, en​ergy pay​ments are struc​tured to allow the pro​-
ject com​pany to re​cover the cost of in​puts (such as fuel) used to gen​er​ate
the net out​put de​liv​ered and to re​cover op​er​a​tions and main​te​nance costs
that vary de​pend​ing on the quan​tity of net out​put gen​er​ated.

For non-dis​patch​able plants, the en​ergy pay​ment is struc​tured to allow the

pro​ject com​pany to re​cover the costs a ca​pac​ity pay​ment would cover in
the case of a dis​patch​able plant. The en​ergy charge rate, which is the price
per MWh or kWh of net elec​tri​cal out​put, is priced to en​able the pro​ject
com​pany to re​cover those costs over time. Typ​i​cally, the pro​ject com​pany
is re​quired to gen​er​ate a spec​i​fied quan​tity of net elec​tri​cal out​put over a
pe​riod of time (e.g. a year) in order to re​ceive the en​ergy charge rate. The
quan​tity spec​i​fied is typ​i​cally based on sta​tis​ti​cal prob​a​bil​ity of how much
the plant should be able to pro​duce in that pe​riod of time. For ex​am​ple, it
may be based upon how much net out​put a solar PV plant is ex​pected to
gen​er​ate over a year with a 90% de​gree of prob​a​bil​ity.

Deemed Energy Payments

Non-dis​patch​able plants can rely on en​ergy pay​ments as their sole source
of rev​enues be​cause off​tak​ers are gen​er​ally ob​lig​ated to pur​chase all of the
en​ergy the plants gen​er​ate. In the event that (i) the pro​ject com​pany is
asked to cur​tail the gen​er​a​tion of net elec​tri​cal out​put, or (ii) the plant is
not ca​pa​ble of gen​er​at​ing and de​liv​er​ing net elec​tri​cal out​put to the de​liv​-
ery point as a re​sult of risks the off​taker has agreed to as​sume, then the off​-
taker re​mains obliged to pay deemed en​ergy pay​ments. The amount of this
pay​ment is equal to the en​ergy pay​ments the pro​ject com​pany could have
earned by gen​er​at​ing net elec​tri​cal out​put if the pro​ject com​pany had not
been asked to cur​tail the gen​er​a​tion.

Deemed en​ergy pay​ments are usu​ally de​ter​mined by cal​cu​lat​ing the quan​-

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 RECURRING PAYMENT OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE PPA

Deemed en​ergy pay​ments are usu​ally de​ter​mined by cal​cu​lat​ing the quan​-

tity of net elec​tri​cal out​put the plant could have gen​er​ated dur​ing a cur​tail​-
ment using real-time data for the site con​di​tions (wind speed and di​rec​tion
in the case of wind plants, solar ir​ra​di​a​tion in the case of solar plants, and
quan​ti​ties of water spilled in the case of run-of-river hy​dro​elec​tric plants).

Pass-through Payments
IPPs which have a sep​a​rate fuel sup​ply con​tract will them​selves often have
a take-or-pay oblig​a​tion to the fuel sup​plier. Under a take-or-pay pro​vi​-
sion, the pur​chaser com​mits to pur​chase an agreed quan​tity of fuel over a
given pe​riod of time and will be li​able to pay for this quan​tity re​gard​less of
whether or not it ac​tu​ally ac​cepts de​liv​ery of the fuel. By the same token,
the sup​plier may have a put-or-pay oblig​a​tion to com​pen​sate the IPP for
non-de​liv​ery of fuel. Sim​i​lar pro​vi​sions apply to other feed​stock sup​ply
con​tracts, such as ge​ot​her​mal.

The PPAs for such IPPs will typ​i​cally in​clude a pro​vi​sion whereby this li​a​-
bil​ity is passed through to the off​taker/host gov​ern​ment where non-de​liv​ery
is caused by a risk which is as​sumed by the off​taker/host gov​ern​ment. In
other words, if an off​taker fails to dis​patch a plant at a level that will en​able
the pro​ject com​pany to con​sume the spec​i​fied take-or-pay quan​tity of fuel,
the off​taker (or host gov​ern​ment, de​pend​ing on the risk) will be re​quired
to make a pay​ment to allow the pro​ject com​pany to cover the take-or-pay
pay​ment (in part or whole, de​pend​ing on the PPA pro​vi​sions) to the fuel
sup​plier.

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 FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS SUPPORTED BY CREDIT SUPPORT

5.3. Other Extraordinary Payment

Obligations
In ad​di​tion to con​sid​er​ing the tar​iff, in​vestors in a power pro​ject will also
as​sess and price the risk of cer​tain ex​tra​or​di​nary pay​ment oblig​a​tions that
may arise over the life of a power plant, as a re​sult of an ex​tra​or​di​nary
event (please see below).

In​vestors may re​quire credit en​hance​ment from the host gov​ern​ment or a

third-party provider to mit​i​gate these risks.

Un​like busi​nesses in other sec​tors that have flex​i​bil​ity to re​cover un​ex​-

pected costs by ad​just​ing the price of goods sold to their con​sumers, an IPP
will not be able to re​coup in​creased costs from its sin​gle cus​tomer (the off​-
taker) un​less a re​cov​ery of these costs is per​mit​ted under the PPA. Even if
the off​taker as​sumes li​a​bil​ity for such in​creased costs under the PPA,
lenders and in​vestors may not be com​fort​able with the pro​ject com​pany's
abil​ity to re​cover such costs un​less they are ei​ther:
• re​flected in the tar​iff charged by the off​taker to the end-user; or
• al​lo​cated to the host coun​try, in a credit sup​port agree​ment be​tween the
host coun​try and the pro​ject com​pany (often re​ferred to as an im​ple​-
men​ta​tion agree​ment).

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 OTHER EXTRAORDINARY PAYMENT OBLIGATIONS

Allocation of Extraordinary Payments

The host coun​try is there​fore in the best po​si​tion to mit​i​gate these risks, ei​-
ther di​rectly by en​ter​ing into an agree​ment with the pro​ject com​pany, or
in​di​rectly by al​lo​cat​ing them to the off​taker and per​mit​ting the off​taker to
pass such risks onto con​sumers by in​creas​ing its rates or in​clud​ing a sur​-
charge on elec​tric​ity builds.

Extraordinary Events that May Require Credit Support

The fol​low​ing are cat​e​gories of ex​tra​or​di​nary events. Lenders and in​-
vestors often seek to have the as​so​ci​ated risks mit​i​gated by host coun​try
credit en​hance​ment.

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 FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS SUPPORTED BY CREDIT SUPPORT

Extraordinary Events of Risk

Changes in Law
Changes in law in​clude the re​peal, mod​i​fi​ca​tion, or rein​ter​pre​ta​tion of any
law, reg​u​la​tion, de​ci​sion, code, or con​sent that is in ef​fect when the PPA is
ex​e​cuted, or the adop​tion of a new law, reg​u​la​tion, de​ci​sion, code or con​-
sent there​after, that:
• es​tab​lishes any re​quire​ment for the de​vel​op​ment, de​sign, con​struc​tion,
fi​nanc​ing, own​er​ship, op​er​a​tion, or main​te​nance of a plant;
• in​creases the costs in​curred by the pro​ject com​pany or its con​trac​tors in
con​nec​tion with the pro​ject, or de​creases the rev​enues they may earn in
con​nec​tion with the pro​ject (par​tic​u​larly if the change in law is dis​crim​-
i​na​tory);
• oth​er​wise has a ma​te​ri​ally ad​verse ef​fect on the pro​ject com​pany or its
con​trac​tors or its/their abil​ity to per​form their oblig​a​tions or ex​er​cise
its/their rights under the PPA; or
• oth​er​wise af​fects the in​ter​ests of the in​vestors, in​clud​ing the re​turns
they may ex​pect to earn on their in​vest​ment in the pro​ject, in a sig​nif​i​-
cant or ma​te​r​ial man​ner.

Changes in law can in​flu​ence the eco​nom​ics of a pro​ject by, among other

84
 OTHER EXTRAORDINARY PAYMENT OBLIGATIONS

Changes in law can in​flu​ence the eco​nom​ics of a pro​ject by, among other
things:
• re​quir​ing that the pro​ject com​pany in​curs a cap​i​tal ex​pense to mod​ify a
power plant;
• re​quir​ing that the pro​ject com​pany in​curs in​creased op​er​at​ing ex​penses;
or
• re​duc​ing the rev​enues the pro​ject com​pany may earn.

An ex​am​ple of the man​ner in which a change in law may re​sult in an in​-

crease in costs is as fol​lows:

Grid Regulations Example

Changes in Tax
A change in tax is the adop​tion, re​peal, amend​ment, rein​ter​pre​ta​tion, or
other change in the laws of the host coun​try that in​creases the taxes
payable by the pro​ject com​pany or by the in​vestors in re​spect of their in​-
vest​ment in the pro​ject.

Political Force Majeure Events

85
 FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS SUPPORTED BY CREDIT SUPPORT

Political Force Majeure Events

Force ma​jeure events are events or cir​cum​stances that are be​yond the rea​-
son​able con​trol of a party, that ma​te​ri​ally and ad​versely af​fect the per​for​-
mance by that party of its oblig​a​tions under the PPA, that can​not be rea​-
son​ably over​come by that party through the ex​er​cise of dili​gence and rea​-
son​able care. Po​lit​i​cal force ma​jeure events are force ma​jeure events caused
by events such as war, em​bar​goes, riots, in​sur​rec​tions, block​ades, ter​ror​ist
ac​tions, and po​lit​i​cally mo​ti​vated and na​tion-wide strikes, in each case in,
or af​fect​ing, the host coun​try.

Costs as​so​ci​ated with po​lit​i​cal force ma​jeure events are usu​ally al​lo​cated to
the off​taker or host gov​ern​ment. These risks are al​lo​cated to the off​taker
through pro​vi​sions that:
• pro​vide for the con​tin​ued pay​ment of ca​pac​ity or deemed en​ergy pay​-
ments dur​ing the con​tin​u​a​tion of a po​lit​i​cal force ma​jeure event or their
ef​fects; and
• pro​vide for ad​just​ments to the tar​iff in the event that a po​lit​i​cal force
ma​jeure event re​quires the com​pany to incur cap​i​tal ex​penses to re​store
a plant that has been dam​aged by a po​lit​i​cal force ma​jeure event.

In sce​nar​ios where the lenders and in​vestors are not com​fort​able with the
abil​ity of the off​taker to make these pay​ments, they may seek to have the
costs cov​ered by host coun​try credit en​hance​ment.

Discovery of Pre-Existing Environmental Conditions

86
 OTHER EXTRAORDINARY PAYMENT OBLIGATIONS

Discovery of Pre-Existing Environmental Conditions

In the event that a pro​ject com​pany dis​cov​ers an en​vi​ron​men​tal con​di​tion
that ex​isted at the pro​ject site prior to the de​vel​op​ment of the pro​ject, ap​-
plic​a​ble law will usu​ally re​quire the pro​ject com​pany to rem​edy the en​vi​-
ron​men​tal con​di​tion. If the ex​is​tence of the en​vi​ron​men​tal con​di​tion was
not dis​closed to the pro​ject com​pany and its in​vestors and could not rea​-
son​ably have been known by them, then the costs the pro​ject com​pany may
incur to rem​edy the en​vi​ron​men​tal con​di​tion will usu​ally be borne by the
off​taker ei​ther through a lump sum pay​ment or an ad​just​ment to the tar​iff.
This is par​tic​u​larly true if the off​taker or the host coun​try was re​spon​si​ble
for se​lect​ing the pro​ject site. Due to the haz​ardous and ma​te​r​ial im​pact that
such re​me​di​a​tion costs can have on in​vestors' re​turns, in sce​nar​ios where
lenders and in​vestors are not com​fort​able with the abil​ity of the off​taker to
cover these costs, they may seek to have the costs cov​ered by host coun​try
credit en​hance​ment.

Unexpected Remediation Costs

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 FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS SUPPORTED BY CREDIT SUPPORT

5.4. Termination and Transfer

A unique fea​ture of a reg​u​lated power sec​tor is that often there is only one
sin​gle buyer in the mar​ket who is leg​is​lated to pay for the en​ergy/ca​pac​ity
pro​duced and/or pro​vided by a util​ity-scale power plant. Usu​ally, this sin​-
gle buyer is the util​ity, often com​pletely or partly owned by the gov​ern​-
ment. This means the PPA is ef​fec​tively the only source of rev​enues for a
pro​ject com​pany.

If a PPA is ter​mi​nated be​fore its ex​pi​ra​tion (early ter​mi​na​tion), the pro​ject

com​pany (and the in​vestors who fi​nanced the com​pany, in​clud​ing con​-
struc​tion of the power plant) may end up with a stranded asset that has no
other means to mon​e​tise the power it pro​duces to re​cover the in​vest​ment
made in the pro​ject. In order to ad​dress this risk of non-re​cov​ery of in​vest​-
ment/in​vest​ment re​turns, in​vestors and lenders will often re​quire the host
coun​try or off​taker to agree to pur​chase the plant from the pro​ject com​-
pany at a pre-agreed price in the event that the PPA is ter​mi​nated for rea​-
sons that are be​yond the rea​son​able con​trol of the pro​ject com​pany.

In the event a pro​ject com​pany fails to per​form its oblig​a​tions under a PPA,
and the off​taker ex​er​cises its right to early ter​mi​na​tion of that PPA, the off​-
taker/the host coun​try may seek the op​tion to pur​chase the power plant
and run and op​er​ate it it​self, or to place the plant with a pri​vate third party
whom it be​lieves is well suited to do so.

There are there​fore two broad types of rights with re​spect to the power
plant that are ei​ther in favour of the off​taker or pro​ject com​pany, de​pend​-
ing on the trig​ger or cause of the early ter​mi​na​tion of the PPA:

a. the right of the off​taker (or host coun​try) to pur​chase the plant or its
shares (some​times called a "call op​tion" or sim​ply "call"); and

b. the right of the pro​ject com​pany to re​quire the off​taker or host coun​try
to pur​chase the power plant or its shares (some​times called a "put op​-
tion" or "put").

These put or call op​tion rights may be part of the PPA, as post-ter​mi​na​tion

88
 TERMINATION AND TRANSFER

These put or call op​tion rights may be part of the PPA, as post-ter​mi​na​tion
oblig​a​tions of the par​ties to the PPA (the off​taker and the pro​ject com​-
pany), or they may be set forth in a sep​a​rate agree​ment (such as a "put/call
op​tion agree​ment"). A put/call op​tion agree​ment may have ad​di​tional par​-
ties to it that are not par​ties to a PPA, in​clud​ing, for ex​am​ple, the host
coun​try and pro​ject in​vestors.

The di​a​gram below de​picts some causes or "trig​gers" that may re​sult in
early ter​mi​na​tion of a PPA and the po​ten​tial sale or pur​chase rights with
re​spect to the power plant that may fol​low. While the di​a​gram il​lus​trates
cer​tain of the key pro​ject com​pany and off​taker events of de​fault, it should
be noted that not all events of de​fault re​sult in an early ter​mi​na​tion of a
PPA. Whether there is an early ter​mi​na​tion of a PPA will de​pend, in part,
on the rel​e​vant pro​vi​sions of the PPA and/or other agree​ments be​tween
the par​ties. The key point re​mains, how​ever, that the early ter​mi​na​tion of
a PPA is a risk that can be as​sessed by the par​ties and al​lo​cated through ne​-
go​ti​ated terms such as power plant sale/pur​chase pro​vi​sions.

Termination Triggers

89
 FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS SUPPORTED BY CREDIT SUPPORT

With re​spect to trig​gers, an off​taker event of de​fault could be, for ex​am​ple,
a fail​ure to meet re​cur​ring pay​ment oblig​a​tions under the PPA – i.e. the
off​taker fails to pay the pro​ject com​pany for power/ca​pac​ity pro​vided/de​-
liv​ered per the agree​ment. A pro​ject com​pany de​fault pre-COD could be
the fail​ure to com​mence con​struc​tion by a spec​i​fied time; a pro​ject com​-
pany de​fault post-COD could be break​ing cer​tain laws, for ex​am​ple, com​-
mit​ting cor​rupt prac​tices. Cer​tain of the other risks, such as po​lit​i​cal and
nat​ural force ma​jeure, are de​scribed in more de​tail in Sec​tion 5.3 of this
hand​book.

The pur​chase/sale price of the power plant will vary, de​pend​ing on the
trig​ger event, in​clud​ing its cause. A wide va​ri​ety of meth​ods can be used to
cal​cu​late pur​chase prices, but some fun​da​men​tal build​ing blocks are com​-
monly used, such as the amount of out​stand​ing debt, ter​mi​na​tion costs, and
out​stand​ing share​holder con​tri​bu​tions, among oth​ers. These build​ing
blocks – and the de​f​i​n​i​tions used below under the col​umn "Typ​i​cally
agreed Pur​chase Price" – are de​scribed in more de​tail in the "De​fault and
Ter​mi​na​tion" sec​tion of the Un​der​stand​ing Power Pur​chase Agree​ments
hand​book. It should be stressed that the sec​tion sim​ply pro​vides ex​am​ples
of how pur​chase prices can be cal​cu​lated. Other meth​ods could be used to
cal​cu​late pur​chase prices. The table below de​picts whether a par​tic​u​lar trig​-
ger may re​sult in put or call op​tion rights on the part of the pro​ject com​-
pany or off​taker, re​spec​tively. The use of the word "maybe" below re​flects
the fact that these mat​ters are often sub​ject to dis​cus​sion and ne​go​ti​a​tion
be​tween the par​ties.

The trig​ger events, the re​sult​ing rights, and the con​se​quent pur​chase price
re​flected in the table below are in​dica​tive only. The cat​e​gories of trig​ger
events listed are not in​tended to be ex​haus​tive, and the exact rights and
price cal​cu​la​tions will al​ways be sub​ject to what is ne​go​ti​ated and agreed
upon by the par​ties.

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 TERMINATION AND TRANSFER

Trigger Event Project Company Offtaker right to Typically agreed

right to require purchase plant Purchase Price
purchase of plant from project
by offtaker company
("Put") ("Call")
Offtaker Event of Yes Maybe Offtaker Default
Default Purchase Price

Project Company No Yes Pre-COD

Event of Default Project
occurring prior to Company
the COD Default
Purchase Price

Project Company Maybe Yes Post-COD

Event of Default Project
occurring after the Company
COD Default
Purchase Price

Expropriation Yes Maybe Offtaker Default

Purchase Price

Prolonged Political Yes Maybe Offtaker Default

Force Majeure Purchase Price
Event

Prolonged Natural Maybe Maybe Natural Force

Force Majeure Majeure
Event Purchase Price

Prolonged Fuel Maybe Maybe Varies,

Supply Constraint depending on a
number of
factors

The di​a​gram below il​lus​trates some of the build​ing blocks com​monly used
in cal​cu​lat​ing a ter​mi​na​tion pay​ment. Items in the "Ad​di​tions" col​umn in​-
di​cate amounts usu​ally added to the ter​mi​na​tion pay​ment cal​cu​la​tion and
items in the "Sub​trac​tions" col​umn in​di​cate amounts typ​i​cally de​ducted
from the cal​cu​la​tion.

91
FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS SUPPORTED BY CREDIT SUPPORT

Elements for Termination Payment Calculation

92
 FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS SUPPORTED BY CREDIT SUPPORT

5.5. Summary of Key Points

An off​taker in a PPA with an IPP has three main cat​e​gories of pay​ment
oblig​a​tions:
• re​cur​ring pay​ment oblig​a​tions payable in the or​di​nary course of busi​-
ness;
• ex​tra​or​di​nary pay​ment oblig​a​tions that may arise over the life​cy​cle of a
pro​ject, but which do not arise in the or​di​nary course of busi​ness; and
• pay​ment oblig​a​tions that may arise upon the ter​mi​na​tion of a PPA prior
to the ex​pi​ra​tion of its term or upon the ex​pro​pri​a​tion of ei​ther the
shares in a pro​ject com​pany or the plant it​self.

The par​ties' as​sess​ment of the risk of non-ful​fil​ment of any of these oblig​a​-

tions by the off​taker im​pacts on risk al​lo​ca​tion and pric​ing of a trans​ac​tion.
It may also ne​ces​si​tate the need for credit en​hance​ment or other sup​port
from the host coun​try.

Re​cur​ring pay​ment oblig​a​tions are typ​i​cally set forth in the tar​iff struc​ture
and for​malised in a PPA. The tar​iff can in​clude pay​ments for ac​tual and/or
deemed en​ergy ca​pac​ity, pay​ments for ac​tual and/or en​ergy de​liv​ered,
and/or pay​ments that ac​count for cer​tain take-or-pay oblig​a​tions. The par​-
tic​u​lar tar​iff struc​ture adopted will re​flect the par​ties' as​sess​ment of risks
as​so​ci​ated with the pro​ject.

Power pro​ject in​vestors may re​quire pro​vi​sions that allow for pay​ment in
the event of ex​tra​or​di​nary events dur​ing the life​cy​cle of a pro​ject. The na​-
ture and type of such ex​tra​or​di​nary pay​ment oblig​a​tions will de​pend on the
par​ties' as​sess​ment of risks as​so​ci​ated with the cor​re​spond​ing events.

Early ter​mi​na​tion of a PPA can neg​a​tively im​pact both a pro​ject com​pany

and an off​taker/host coun​try. As a re​sult, stake​hold​ers may agree to cer​tain
pur​chase/sale terms with re​spect to the power plant in the event of cer​tain
trig​ger events that may lead to early ter​mi​na​tion.

93
6. Sovereign Support
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Sovereign Guarantees
6.3. Letters of Comfort and Letters of
Support
6.4. Put and Call Option Agreements
6.5. Liquidity Letters of Credit
6.6. Liquidity Escrow Accounts
6.7. Debt Sustainability
6.8. Host Government Considerations
6.9. Summary of Key Points

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

6.1. Introduction
Even as host coun​tries cre​ate power mar​kets and begin to move to​ward
pri​vate par​tic​i​pa​tion (re​mov​ing el​e​ments of the power mar​ket from their
bal​ance sheet), their gov​ern​ments are often still re​lied upon to ex​tend their
sup​port. This sup​port takes many forms, in​clud​ing leg​isla​tive sup​port, reg​-
u​la​tion, li​cens​ing, over​sight, and an​cil​lary mar​ket func​tions such as trans​-
mis​sion and/or fuel sup​ply.

Gov​ern​ments are re​lied upon to cre​ate an en​abling en​vi​ron​ment, fa​cil​i​tate

pro​ject fi​nance struc​tures, al​lo​cate and price risks ac​cord​ing to gen​er​ally ac​-
cepted pro​ject fi​nanc​ing prin​ci​ples, all in an ef​fort to help stim​u​late and
sup​port pri​vate power pro​jects. While a great deal of time and ef​fort is in​-
volved in such en​deav​ours, by adopt​ing these ap​proaches a gov​ern​ment
can in​crease the like​li​hood of reap​ing the ben​e​fits of pro​ject fi​nanc​ing an
IPP pro​ject, namely that the up-front cost of the pro​ject is pro​vided
through pri​vate sec​tor-led fi​nanc​ing and not from the sov​er​eign's bal​ance
sheet.

The per​ceived ben​e​fits in​her​ent in these struc​tures, prac​tices, and meth​ods

take time to de​velop and ma​te​ri​alise into ma​ture power mar​kets. Macro​-
eco​nomic events both ex​ter​nal and in​ter​nal to the host coun​try can di​min​-
ish the pos​i​tive im​pacts of such ap​proaches. There​fore, even in sce​nar​ios
where a gov​ern​ment has:

a. fully em​braced pro​ject fi​nanc​ing,

b. adopted the var​i​ous prac​tices rec​om​mended by the in​ter​na​tional fi​-

nance com​mu​ni and

c. agreed to a clas​sic al​lo​ca​tion of risks among the var​i​ous IPP stake​hold​-

ers,

the pri​vate in​vestors' per​cep​tion of the host coun​try risks may not yet
make the pro​ject at​trac​tive enough at the agreed price.

One means of rem​e​dy​ing this sit​u​a​tion is through a more ro​bust pric​ing of

95
 INTRODUCTION

One means of rem​e​dy​ing this sit​u​a​tion is through a more ro​bust pric​ing of

the deal to re​flect the per​ceived risk, but this may not be vi​able in light of
the im​pact on the off​taker or the off​taker's abil​ity to pass it through to end-
users. In these in​stances, the pri​vate sec​tor lenders and in​vestors may look
to the sov​er​eign and its bal​ance sheet for ad​di​tional sup​port of the pro​ject
to ad​dress ma​te​r​ial un​mit​i​gated risks through credit en​hance​ments.

There are a num​ber of rea​sons that a host coun​try might agree to pro​vide
an IPP with credit en​hance​ment, and a num​ber of in​stru​ments through
which a host coun​try might pro​vide this sup​port. This chap​ter seeks to
iden​tify and de​scribe these rea​sons and in​stru​ments, as well as how a host
coun​try might ac​count for credit en​hance​ment it has pro​vided, and the
chal​lenges a host coun​try might face in pro​vid​ing such sup​port.

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

6.2. Sovereign Guarantees

Sovereign Guarantees for Payment Obligations of a
State-Owned Offtaker
The need for credit sup​port by the sov​er​eign may be re​quired both to ad​-
dress con​tin​u​ing pay​ment risks, or to ad​dress the abil​ity to sat​isfy ter​mi​na​-
tion pay​ments. If both risks are pre​sent in a pro​ject, pro​ject in​vestors and
lenders may re​quire a broader guar​an​tee from the host coun​try, typ​i​cally ti​-
tled a sov​er​eign guar​an​tee, that cov​ers rou​tine pay​ment, ter​mi​na​tion pay​-
ment and other off​taker oblig​a​tions under the PPA.

As noted in the il​lus​tra​tion below, the sov​er​eign guar​an​tee is not a bi​lat​eral

agree​ment be​tween the host gov​ern​ment and the off​taker. It is a di​rect
oblig​a​tion from the host gov​ern​ment to the pro​ject com​pany, and by ex​-
ten​sion to the lenders. It should be noted that the sov​er​eign guar​an​tee is
not a guar​an​tee of the debt oblig​a​tions owed to lenders by the pro​ject com​-
pany.

Sovereign Guarantee Structure

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 SOVEREIGN GUARANTEES

Suitability of a Sovereign Guarantee

In de​ter​min​ing whether the guar​an​tee should be pro​vided, the par​ties to
the pro​ject should con​sider the cas​cade of op​tions avail​able. If it is de​ter​-
mined that sov​er​eign credit sup​port is needed, the host gov​ern​ment should
model the risk fac​tors to as​sess the ex​tent of ex​po​sure to such risk and un​-
der​take a quan​ti​ta​tive analy​sis of the cost of bear​ing that risk against the
eco​nomic stim​u​lus ben​e​fits of the power that would be de​liv​ered by the
pro​ject. Therein lies the com​plex​ity as to de​ter​min​ing whether a sov​er​eign
pay​ment guar​an​tee should or could be fur​nished for a given pro​ject.

Structure and Value of a Sovereign Guarantee

A sov​er​eign guar​an​tee will be a con​tin​gent li​a​bil​ity on the host gov​ern​-
ment's bal​ance sheet and should re​quire a de​tailed as​sess​ment of:
• any reg​u​la​tory hur​dles the gov​ern​ment may need to over​come to pro​-
vide such guar​an​tee;
• the im​pact of the guar​an​tee on the sus​tain​abil​ity of its over​all pub​lic
debt lev​els and its im​pact on var​i​ous fi​nan​cial covenants the gov​ern​-
ment has un​der​taken to up​hold under its var​i​ous do​mes​tic and in​ter​na​-
tional debt oblig​a​tions; and
• the pol​icy frame​work on pro​jects for which such guar​an​tees will be pro​-
vided, with a view to en​sur​ing fair and eq​ui​table treat​ment of all in​de​-
pen​dent power pro​duc​ers in​vest​ing in power gen​er​a​tion in the host
coun​try.

For the pro​ject lenders and the pro​ject com​pany re​quest​ing a guar​an​tee,
the value of the guar​an​tee must be prag​mat​i​cally as​sessed. The value of the
guar​an​tee may be in​flu​enced by the credit qual​ity of the host gov​ern​ment.
The value may also be con​strained by a sov​er​eign debt ceil​ing. Pru​dent
pro​ject lenders and pro​ject com​pa​nies should, in all cir​cum​stances, eval​u​ate
the re​quire​ment and prac​ti​cal con​sid​er​a​tion of ob​tain​ing guar​an​tees, es​pe​-
cially in light of al​ter​na​tive risk mit​i​ga​tion prod​ucts avail​able in the mar​ket
which are dis​cussed later in this hand​book.

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

Term of the Sovereign Guarantee

A sov​er​eign guar​an​tee some​times ex​pires when the debt out​stand​ing to the
pro​ject lenders has been re​duced to zero or when the off​taker’s cred​it​wor​-
thi​ness meets a de​fined thresh​old. The ra​tio​nale is that the risks would
have been as​sessed and priced by the pro​ject com​pany and the lenders in
the fi​nan​cial model dur​ing this pe​riod, and what re​mains should be risk
that the pro​ject com​pany can mit​i​gate with​out seek​ing any fur​ther sov​er​-
eign pay​ment guar​an​tee or sup​port.

Other Entities Whose Obligations May Be Covered by

Sovereign Guarantees
De​pend​ing on the tech​nol​ogy of the power plant and the fuel source, a
power plant sup​ply​ing elec​tric​ity to the na​tional grid will be in​trin​si​cally
linked to the trans​mis​sion in​ter​con​nec​tion net​work and/or the fuel trans​-
porta​tion in​fra​struc​ture. Where a state-owned en​tity, local gov​ern​ment
au​thor​ity or state-owned util​ity owns such in​fra​struc​ture and is re​spon​si​ble
for the con​nec​tion of the in​fra​struc​ture (from the grid or the fuel trans​-
porta​tion sys​tem) to the power plant, the sov​er​eign guar​an​tee may need to
cover the risk of de​lays in com​ple​tion and de​liv​ery. This is typ​i​cally cov​-
ered con​trac​tu​ally under the PPA where such delay would con​sti​tute a
com​pen​sa​tion event en​ti​tling the pro​ject com​pany to claim deemed avail​-
abil​ity and/or deemed en​ergy pay​ments. A sim​i​lar ap​proach may also need
to be taken with re​spect to grid fail​ure or fuel sup​ply con​straints. In each
case, non-pay​ment of the deemed ca​pac​ity and en​ergy pay​ments (after ex​-
haust​ing all the de​fault and re​me​di​a​tion pro​vi​sions under the PPA) will
trig​ger a call on the guar​an​tee.

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

6.3. Letters of Comfort and Letters

of Support
How com​fort​ing is a let​ter of com​fort? How sup​port​ive is a let​ter of sup​-
port? Are these types of let​ters legally en​force​able? What value do such in​-
stru​ments pro​vide to the off​taker as credit en​hance​ment?

A let​ter of com​fort is a let​ter from a host coun​try whereby it promises to

fa​cil​i​tate a pro​ject by of​fer​ing cer​tain as​sur​ances to the pro​ject de​vel​oper.
Un​like a sov​er​eign guar​an​tee, which es​tab​lishes legally bind​ing oblig​a​tions
on the sov​er​eign, a let​ter of com​fort may be a sim​ple re​flec​tion of will​ing​-
ness and in​tent of the sov​er​eign to sup​port the de​vel​op​ment of the pro​ject.
Since the ob​jec​tive of a let​ter of com​fort may not nec​es​sar​ily be to cre​ate
legally bind​ing oblig​a​tions, the let​ter may rather seek to demon​strate the
host coun​try's com​mit​ment to the pro​ject and offer "soft com​fort" that the
host coun​try will sup​port the pro​ject, the pro​ject com​pany and its spon​-
sors.

This sup​port may in​clude fa​cil​i​tat​ing ap​provals re​quired for pro​ject im​ple​-
men​ta​tion, gen​eral sup​port of its off​taker as well as fis​cal in​cen​tives. As
com​pared to a sov​er​eign guar​an​tee, let​ters of com​fort, par​tic​u​larly if
drafted in a man​ner that they are not legally bind​ing, do not pro​vide the
same level of credit en​hance​ment from an in​vestor or lender per​spec​tive.
This is pri​mar​ily due to the re​al​ity that if the host gov​ern​ment does not ho​-
n​our its com​mit​ments as spec​i​fied in a let​ter of com​fort it may, in the
worst case, re​sult in rep​u​ta​tional dam​age to the host coun​try but with​out
any fur​ther legal or fi​nan​cial re​course by the in​vestors against it.

The pri​mary crit​i​cism of let​ters of com​fort is that they put the gov​ern​ment
in a po​si​tion where it is ex​pected to back​stop the oblig​a​tions of an off​taker
with​out en​joy​ing the full re​duc​tion in credit risk of the off​taker, and by ex​-
ten​sion with​out grant​ing the full cost sav​ings of a lower cost of cap​i​tal or
im​proved prob​a​bil​ity of pro​ject im​ple​men​ta​tion that would oth​er​wise be
af​forded by a sov​er​eign guar​an​tee.

Enhanced Letters of Comfort / Letters of Support

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 LETTERS OF COMFORT AND LETTERS OF SUPPORT

Enhanced Letters of Comfort / Letters of Support

Some​times let​ters of com​fort are en​hanced in that they con​tain firm un​der​-
tak​ings rather than a sim​ple demon​stra​tion of sup​port for the pro​ject. An
en​hanced let​ter of com​fort may use the same lan​guage as a sov​er​eign guar​-
an​tee, even stat​ing that the gov​ern​ment "shall un​der​take" cer​tain oblig​a​-
tions and go so far as to de​fine no​tice and ar​bi​tra​tion pro​vi​sions. These
types of un​der​tak​ings, whether in a let​ter or in an agree​ment, will typ​i​cally
be legally bind​ing on the sov​er​eign (even if the name of the doc​u​ment is
"let​ter of com​fort"). The key is al​ways to look at the en​force​abil​ity of the
oblig​a​tions con​tained in the let​ter of com​fort (in​clud​ing tak​ing ad​vice from
lawyers – from the at​tor​ney or so​lic​i​tor gen​eral for the gov​ern​ment and
from local or in​ter​na​tional coun​sel for spon​sors and their lenders). Ul​ti​-
mately how​ever, even if the oblig​a​tions are en​force​able (and all par​ties re​-
ceive ad​vice or legal opin​ions that con​firm this is the case), in order for the
in​vestor or its lenders to ben​e​fit from the en​hanced let​ter of com​fort, they
may need to en​force their rights against gov​ern​ment in court or ar​bi​tra​-
tion, whereas under a gov​ern​ment guar​an​tee, the route for de​mand​ing
pay​ment may be more straight​for​ward, par​tic​u​larly if this oblig​a​tion is
back-stopped by an ex​ter​nal fi​nan​cial in​sti​tu​tion.

In cer​tain ju​ris​dic​tions these en​hanced let​ters of com​fort are called let​ters

of sup​port. In those ju​ris​dic​tions, the let​ters of sup​port con​tain en​force​able
oblig​a​tions which, while falling short of fi​nan​cial guar​an​tee oblig​a​tions,
nonethe​less pro​vide ad​di​tional and bind​ing com​fort for in​vestors and
lenders in re​la​tion to a range of risks. These can in​clude po​lit​i​cal and other
types of force ma​jeure, change of tax, change of law and com​pen​sa​tion on
ter​mi​na​tion/trans​fer. Let​ters of sup​port are more akin to im​ple​men​ta​tion
agree​ments or gov​ern​ment sup​port agree​ments but fall short of grant​ing
gov​ern​ment guar​an​tees.

In many cases, the rea​son that let​ters of com​fort or let​ters of sup​port are
given is that guar​an​tees re​quire (i) par​lia​men​tary or con​sti​tu​tional ap​-
proval; and (ii) as noted in Sec​tion 6.7 below, the grant​ing of guar​an​tees
may im​pact on debt sus​tain​abil​ity lev​els of the sov​er​eign, which could im​-
pact fur​ther bor​row​ing from ex​ter​nal in​sti​tu​tions.

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

6.4. Put and Call Option

Agreements
In con​trast to a sov​er​eign guar​an​tee – which guar​an​tees pay​ment of cer​tain
(or all) fi​nan​cial oblig​a​tions to the power pro​ject – a Put Call Op​tion
Agree​ment (PCOA) es​tab​lishes di​rect con​trac​tual oblig​a​tions be​tween a
host coun​try and the pro​ject share​hold​ers. Specif​i​cally, a PCOA es​tab​lishes
two con​trac​tual oblig​a​tions:
• the first being a put op​tion in favour of the pro​ject share​hold​ers to re​-
quire the pur​chase of the as​sets of the power pro​ject com​pany by gov​-
ern​ment; and
• the sec​ond being a call op​tion in favour of the host coun​try to re​quire
the pro​ject share​holder to sell the as​sets of the power pro​ject.

The PCOA also de​fines under which con​di​tions the op​tions can be ex​er​-
cised and de​fines the for​mula for how pay​ments under the PCOA are to be
cal​cu​lated.

The Put Option

Under a PCOA, the put op​tion is a con​trac​tual right, but not an oblig​a​tion,
held by the pro​ject share​hold​ers that re​quires the host coun​try to choose to
ei​ther (i) pur​chase the plant and as​sets of the pro​ject com​pany, or (ii) pur​-
chase all of the shares of the pro​ject com​pany that are held by the pri​vate
share​hold​ers, in each case in ex​change for a pre-agreed pur​chase price,
which dif​fers de​pend​ing on the trig​ger event.

The put op​tion held by the pro​ject share​hold​ers is sub​ject to cer​tain con​di​-
tions de​fined under the PCOA, which would typ​i​cally in​clude ei​ther the
ter​mi​na​tion of the PPA fol​low​ing cer​tain de​fined trig​ger events, or the ex​-
pro​pri​a​tion of some or all of the pro​ject’s as​sets.

The Call Option

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 PUT AND CALL OPTION AGREEMENTS

The Call Option

Sim​i​lar to the put op​tion, the call op​tion under a PCOA is a con​trac​tual
right rather than an oblig​a​tion. In the case of the call op​tion, the right rests
with the gov​ern​ment and re​quires the pro​ject share​hold​ers to ei​ther (i) sell
the plant and as​sets of the pro​ject com​pany to the host coun​try, or (ii) to
sell all of the shares in the pro​ject com​pany. The call op​tion is also sub​ject
to cer​tain con​di​tions prece​dent, such as the ter​mi​na​tion of the PPA or
other de​fined con​di​tions.

Trigger Events
As noted above, the put and call op​tions under a PCOA are sub​ject to
strictly de​fined con​di​tions, or “trig​gers”, that must be sat​is​fied prior to ex​-
er​cise of the op​tion. This con​strained na​ture of the PCOA is im​por​tant
since this type of sov​er​eign credit sup​port is, in essence, a “last-re​sort” op​-
tion rather than a guar​an​tee of ac​tions or pay​ments that are in the reg​u​lar
course of busi​ness for a power pro​ject. For ex​am​ple, in the case of de​fault
due to non-pay​ment by the off​taker, the pro​ject share​hold​ers may be re​-
quired to first draw, under a stand​ing let​ter of credit (which may or may
not be part of a par​tial risk guar​an​tee arrange​ment) or from an es​crow ac​-
count, prior to ex​er​cis​ing its put op​tion under the PCOA. Sim​i​larly, in the
case of de​fault due to the seller’s fail​ure to main​tain the power plant, the
gov​ern​ment may be re​quired to allow time for the pro​ject share​hold​ers to
cor​rect the op​er​a​tional issue or for a lender to step in and ap​point a new
pro​ject op​er​a​tor, prior to the gov​ern​ment ex​er​cis​ing the call op​tion under
the PCOA. Even when it comes to even​tu​ally ex​er​cis​ing the put or call op​-
tion under the PCOA, due to the grav​ity of the sit​u​a​tion (i.e. a per​ma​nent
end to the power gen​er​a​tion busi​ness by the IPP), the agree​ment may yet
pro​vide for a final con​sul​ta​tion pe​riod for the par​ties, with time to rem​edy
the sit​u​a​tion and in​crease the prob​a​bil​ity of re​cov​er​ing value for all par​ties
(i.e. through mu​tu​ally agreed re​struc​tur​ing of the fi​nanc​ing), be​fore ei​ther
of these op​tions can be ex​er​cised.

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

For ad​di​tional de​tail on de​fault trig​gers and their op​er​a​tion under a PCOA,
please re​view the chap​ter ti​tled "De​fault and Ter​mi​na​tion" in Un​der​stand​-
ing Power Pur​chase Agree​ments.

Defined Purchase Prices

Sim​i​lar to the list of trig​ger events under a PCOA, the pur​chase price of the
pro​ject as​sets or of the shares in a pro​ject com​pany to be paid as a re​sult of
the ex​er​cis​ing of an op​tion under a PCOA, must also be care​fully de​fined.
The for​mula for the pur​chase price, also known as the ter​mi​na​tion pay​-
ment, will be di​rectly tied to which trig​ger event has led to the ter​mi​na​tion
of the PPA. For ex​am​ple, in the case of ter​mi​na​tion of the PPA due to off​-
taker de​fault, the pur​chase price will likely in​clude not only the value of the
pro​ject as​sets and the out​stand​ing pro​ject debt, but also the ex​pected re​turn
for share​hold​ers in the pro​ject over a pre-agreed pe​riod. In the case of ter​-
mi​na​tion due to seller de​fault, the pur​chase price may be lim​ited to just the
out​stand​ing pro​ject debt. The pur​chase price in the case of ter​mi​na​tion for
force ma​jeure will likely fall some​where be​tween these two ex​tremes and
may de​pend on who is di​rectly im​pacted by the force ma​jeure as be​tween
the off​taker or gov​ern​ment and the pro​ject com​pany. Ex​am​ples of the ter​-
mi​na​tion price are set out in a table in Sec​tion 5.4 above.

For ad​di​tional de​tail on the de​f​i​n​i​tion of pur​chase prices under a PCOA,

please re​view the rel​e​vant chap​ter ti​tled "De​fault and Ter​mi​na​tion" in Un​-
der​stand​ing Power Pur​chase Agree​ments.

Expiration of the Options

If a party to the PCOA does not ex​er​cise a put op​tion or call op​tion within
an agreed pe​riod of time after the ter​mi​na​tion of the PPA be​comes ef​fec​-
tive, then the op​tion will ex​pire. The ex​pi​ra​tion pe​riod will be de​fined in
the PCOA and may also be sub​ject to mu​tual agree​ment by the par​ties to
ex​tend the pe​riod, to allow for fur​ther ne​go​ti​a​tions or at​tempts to re​solve
the de​fault that re​sulted in ter​mi​na​tion.

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

6.5. Liquidity Letters of Credit

As noted in the pre​vi​ous sec​tion, a PCOA is a form of gov​ern​ment sup​port
and is de​signed to allow in​vestors and lenders to exit a pro​ject and re​cover
their in​vest​ment once a PPA has been ter​mi​nated, which should only occur
fol​low​ing a ter​mi​na​tion trig​ger event.

PCOAs are not de​signed to ad​dress the risk that an off​taker may suf​fer
from short-term liq​uid​ity prob​lems. In this way, PCOAs are dif​fer​ent from
sov​er​eign guar​an​tees be​cause a sov​er​eign guar​an​tee is (usu​ally) a guar​an​tee
both of an off​taker’s oblig​a​tion to pay on​go​ing pay​ments, such as ca​pac​ity
pay​ments and en​ergy pay​ments, and also to pay the pur​chase price for a
plant fol​low​ing the ter​mi​na​tion of a PPA. As a re​sult, PCOAs are often
com​bined with credit en​hance​ment tools that are specif​i​cally de​signed to
ad​dress short-term liq​uid​ity prob​lems. A liq​uid​ity let​ter of credit is one
such mech​a​nism.

In sim​ple terms, a liq​uid​ity let​ter of credit is a let​ter of credit posted and

main​tained by an off​taker that can be drawn upon by a pro​ject com​pany in
the event that the off​taker fails to pay a ca​pac​ity pay​ment, en​ergy pay​ment,
deemed en​ergy pay​ment, or a sim​i​lar pay​ment that is reg​u​larly due from
the off​taker within a rel​a​tively short pe​riod after the pay​ment be​comes
due. The amount avail​able to be drawn under such a let​ter of credit is usu​-
ally equal to a few months’ worth of pro​jected pay​ments under the PPA.

If the off​taker fails to make a pay​ment when re​quired under the PPA, then
the pro​ject com​pany can di​rectly make a de​mand on this let​ter of credit.
This pro​vides a liq​uid​ity buffer en​abling the pro​ject com​pany to re​main
sol​vent with con​tin​ued op​er​a​tions whilst being able to meet over​heads and
ser​vice its debt, even if the off​taker fails to pay. The off​taker is usu​ally
obliged to re​plen​ish such a let​ter of credit by pay​ing the is​su​ing bank under
a doc​u​ment called the re​im​burse​ment and credit agree​ment, fairly quickly
after a draw​ing is made.

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 LIQUIDITY LETTERS OF CREDIT

Liquidity Letter of Credit with Offtaker Obligation to Replenish

In ex​change for post​ing and main​tain​ing a liq​uid​ity let​ter of credit, the ini​-
tial fail​ure by the off​taker to pay a ca​pac​ity pay​ment, en​ergy pay​ment, or
sim​i​lar pay​ment that is se​cured by a liq​uid​ity let​ter of credit, will typ​i​cally
not con​sti​tute an off​taker event of de​fault. Rather, an off​taker event of de​-
fault will occur if the off​taker sub​se​quently fails to re​plen​ish the let​ter of
credit within a cer​tain pe​riod of time, or if the off​taker fails to make a re​-
quired pay​ment under the PPA after the let​ter of credit is ex​hausted.

This same struc​ture can be im​ple​mented with a de​mand guar​an​tee gov​-

erned by the Uni​form Rules for De​mand Guar​an​tees in​stead of a let​ter of
credit gov​erned by UCP 600 or ISP 98. In some cases, com​mer​cial banks
are will​ing to issue de​mand guar​an​tees at a cost to off​tak​ers that is lower
than the cor​re​spond​ing cost for a sim​i​larly-sized let​ter of credit.

A liq​uid​ity let​ter of credit may be less ex​pen​sive (or have less op​por​tu​nity
cost) ver​sus using a cash es​crow ac​count to cover short-term pay​ment risk.
In some cases, by not hav​ing the re​im​burse​ment oblig​a​tion cov​ered by a
par​tial risk guar​an​tee, a pay​ment guar​an​tee or a sim​i​lar DFI prod​uct, as
dis​cussed below in Sec​tion 7.2 (DFI Guar​an​tees), the liq​uid​ity let​ter of
credit will be less ex​pen​sive, less com​plex, and less doc​u​ment-in​ten​sive
than those op​tions.

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

Liquidity Letter of Credit with Host Government Obligation to Replenish

How​ever, in other cir​cum​stances, a free​stand​ing let​ter of credit may be un​-

avail​able or cost-pro​hib​i​tive. For ex​am​ple, com​mer​cial let​ter of credit is​su​-
ing banks may be un​will​ing to take the credit risk of the off​taker as the re​-
im​burs​ing party, (or may only be will​ing to do so for the first or two IPP
pro​jects in a coun​try) or they may only be will​ing to take such credit risk in
re​turn for pro​hib​i​tively high fees.

In such cases, the host gov​ern​ment may agree to take on the oblig​a​tion to
re​plen​ish the let​ter of credit, as shown in the di​a​gram above. In other cir​-
cum​stances, let​ter of credit is​su​ing banks may only be will​ing to take the
credit risk of the host gov​ern​ment, and the host gov​ern​ment may be un​-
will​ing to di​rectly take on the re​im​burse​ment oblig​a​tion, in which case the
par​ties will likely need to pur​sue one of the op​tions dis​cussed in Chap​ter 8
below (Third-party Credit Sup​port and Risk Mit​i​ga​tion).

A final point to note is that some​times, the off​taker and the pro​ject com​-
pany may en​gage in ne​go​ti​a​tions about the credit rat​ing of the is​su​ing bank
for the let​ter of credit. To min​imise the risk of the is​su​ing bank not ho​n​-
our​ing the pay​ment re​quest under a let​ter of credit, the pro​ject com​pany
may seek a bank with a high credit rat​ing, or a lower-rated bank whose let​-

107
 LIQUIDITY LETTERS OF CREDIT

ter of credit has been con​firmed by a higher-rated bank. The par​ties will
need to agree on what works for each trans​ac​tion.

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

6.6. Liquidity Escrow Accounts

As an​other op​tion, short-term liq​uid​ity risk may be ad​dressed by sim​ply
de​posit​ing cash into an ac​count (var​i​ously re​ferred to as a liq​uid​ity ac​count,
a re​serve ac​count, or an es​crow ac​count) held by a de​posit bank pur​suant to
the terms of an es​crow agree​ment.

The off​taker will be re​quired to fund the ac​count in an amount equal to a

cer​tain num​ber of pro​jected monthly pay​ments under the PPA – for ex​am​-
ple, based on the total ex​pected charges for a given num​ber of months, or
based solely on the ca​pac​ity charge for that pe​riod. The lim​ited use of such
es​crow ac​counts is often in ad​di​tion to, or in com​bi​na​tion with, other
credit en​hance​ment op​tions, since it only ad​dresses short-term pay​ment
risk.

If the off​taker fails to make a pay​ment when re​quired under the PPA, then
the pro​ject com​pany can draw on this es​crow ac​count. This pro​vides a
buffer so that the pro​ject com​pany can con​tinue to op​er​ate and to pay its
debt ser​vice, even if the off​taker fails to pay. After any draw on the es​crow
ac​count, the off​taker must im​me​di​ately (or after a spec​i​fied num​ber of
days) re​plen​ish the ac​count.

Cash es​crow ac​counts have the ad​van​tage of being clear, sim​ple, and
straight​for​ward. The only third party that needs to be in​volved is a de​posit
bank, so the doc​u​men​ta​tion nor​mally re​quires min​i​mal trans​ac​tion costs,
com​pared to other credit en​hance​ment op​tions.

How​ever, there are a num​ber of rea​sons why par​ties may pre​fer not to use
es​crow ac​counts. Cash es​crow ac​counts are typ​i​cally only a short-term so​-
lu​tion to liq​uid​ity/pay​ment risk. Cash is an ex​pen​sive credit en​hance​ment
op​tion since the cash must be placed in a de​posit ac​count that will typ​i​cally
earn lit​tle to no in​ter​est; and in any case, the amount es​crowed will earn
less in​ter​est than the cost of ob​tain​ing the cap​i​tal. There​fore, there is neg​a​-
tive carry on the amounts on de​posit. Whether this cost is di​rectly paid by
the pro​ject com​pany or the off​taker, it would typ​i​cally be part of the over​all
costs that are passed on to the cus​tomer through the tar​iff.

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 LIQUIDITY ESCROW ACCOUNTS

In ad​di​tion, the lenders to a pro​ject may be con​cerned with the off​taker's

abil​ity to re​plen​ish the es​crow ac​count in the fu​ture, if it is drawn upon.
This con​cern can be ad​dressed by back​stop​ping the off​taker's oblig​a​tion,
ei​ther by the host gov​ern​ment (if it is will​ing and able to take on the re​-
plen​ish​ment oblig​a​tion) or al​ter​na​tively by cer​tain DFIs. For ex​am​ple,
DFIs can pro​vide a pay​ment guar​an​tee sup​port​ing an es​crow ac​count
arrange​ment, which func​tions sim​i​larly to the pay​ment guar​an​tee backed
by an LC dis​cussed above, but with the es​crow ac​count in place of the
guar​an​teed LC struc​ture. Upon a draw on the es​crow ac​count by the pro​-
ject com​pany, the off​taker or host gov​ern​ment, as ap​plic​a​ble, will have an
oblig​a​tion to re​plen​ish it. If the es​crow ac​count is not re​plen​ished, the DFI
provider of the pay​ment guar​an​tee back​stops the off​taker's or host gov​ern​-
ment's oblig​a​tion and re​plen​ishes it. If the DFI provider is an MDB, then
the host gov​ern​ment pro​vides an in​dem​nity in favour of the MDB as the
guar​an​tee provider.

An es​crow ac​count arrange​ment could also be set up as a van​ish​ing fund

whereby amounts kept in es​crow could pro​gres​sively re​vert to the off​taker
if it is able to main​tain a clean un​bro​ken pay​ment track record for a pre-
agreed pe​riod of time.

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

6.7. Debt Sustainability

How Should a Government Account for a Guarantee or
Other Form of Sovereign Credit Support?
In​ter​na​tional ac​count​ing stan​dards ad​dress the ques​tion of how to deal
with gov​ern​ment guar​an​tees, quasi-guar​an​tees, or other forms of sov​er​-
eign credit sup​port on a gov​ern​ment’s bal​ance sheet. In ac​count​ing terms,
these types of gov​ern​ment sup​port oblig​a​tions are termed con​tin​gent li​a​-
bil​i​ties.

Con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties are po​ten​tial fu​ture fi​nan​cial oblig​a​tions whose con​-

ver​sion into an ac​tual fi​nan​cial oblig​a​tion is de​pen​dent on the oc​cur​rence
(or ab​sence) of one or more fu​ture events, which may be out​side of the
gov​ern​ment’s con​trol. We out​line the types of sov​er​eign credit sup​port
that are treated as con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties in ac​count​ing terms in this chap​ter.

Both the In​ter​na​tional Ac​count​ing Stan​dards and the In​ter​na​tional Pub​lic

Sec​tor Ac​count​ing Stan​dards deal with this type of con​tin​gent li​a​bil​ity (in
IAS37 and IP​SAS19 re​spec​tively, en​ti​tled “Pro​vi​sions, Con​tin​gent Li​a​bil​i​ties
and Con​tin​gent As​sets”). Both stan​dards re​quire that en​ti​ties – which for our
pur​poses means gov​ern​ment trea​sury de​part​ments or min​istries of fi​nance
– recog​nise and dis​close con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties un​less the pos​si​bil​ity of those li​-
a​bil​i​ties being called is re​mote. Both stan​dards state that if a pay​ment is
prob​a​ble, a pro​vi​sion is recorded on the bal​ance sheet but that if a pay​ment
is im​prob​a​ble, it is treated as a con​tin​gent li​a​bil​ity and dis​closed (e.g. by way
of a foot​note) but not recorded on the bal​ance sheet as an ac​tual li​a​bil​ity.

Gov​ern​ments typ​i​cally man​age their ac​counts on ei​ther a cash or ac​cru​als

basis, with an in​creas​ing trend for ac​cru​als ac​count​ing. The move to​wards
ac​cru​als ac​count​ing is based on the fact that cash ac​count​ing may not ad​e​-
quately ac​count for all pub​lic sec​tor as​sets and li​a​bil​i​ties. For ex​am​ple, on a
cash ac​count basis, gov​ern​ments may not dis​close sov​er​eign credit sup​port
for power pro​jects as a con​tin​gent or un​funded li​a​bil​ity, even though this
sup​port will crys​tallise into a li​a​bil​ity to be funded if the guar​an​tees or

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quasi-guar​an​tees are trig​gered. Under cash ac​count​ing guide​lines, guar​an​-

tees are recorded in the fis​cal ac​counts only when the li​a​bil​ity is crys​tallised
and a fi​nan​cial oblig​a​tion is recorded. Under ac​crual ac​count​ing, ex​pected
costs are set out in the fis​cal ac​counts at the time a guar​an​tee (or an​other
form of sov​er​eign credit sup​port) is granted.

The issue with re​port​ing on a cash basis is that this gives the il​lu​sion of
pos​i​tive fi​nan​cial re​sults in the short-term – pos​si​bly at the ex​pense of
longer-term fi​nan​cial health and fis​cal sta​bil​ity. Ac​crual ac​count​ing al​lows
gov​ern​ments to demon​strate an in​creased de​sire for both trans​parency and
ac​count​abil​ity. It al​lows bet​ter in​for​ma​tion for de​ci​sion-mak​ing across all
sec​tors of gov​ern​ment. A move to ac​crual ac​count​ing may be part of a
wider fi​nan​cial sec​tor re​form pro​gramme that looks to im​prove gov​ern​-
ment op​er​a​tions across the board as well as con​tribut​ing to the long-term
sus​tain​abil​ity of pub​lic fi​nances, given the abil​ity for gov​ern​ments to an​tic​-
i​pate and react more read​ily to wider risks or threats to the fi​nan​cial health
of a coun​try.

That said, ac​cru​als ac​count​ing is not the only method to in​creased trans​-
parency. In re​spect of guar​an​tees and credit sup​port, trans​parency can also
be strength​ened by dis​clos​ing sup​ple​men​tary in​for​ma​tion in bud​get doc​u​-
ments, fis​cal re​ports and fi​nan​cial state​ments.

The chal​lenge of ac​count​ing in a more trans​par​ent way may be that it puts

a coun​try at a dis​ad​van​tage on a com​par​a​tive basis against an​other coun​try
which may not re​flect their con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties in the same way and
which may be able to at​tract in​ter​na​tional fi​nanc​ing more read​ily, as a re​-
sult.

Why Does the Accounting Treatment Matter?

We start from the premise that guar​an​tees and other forms of credit sup​-
port are a le​git​i​mate form of gov​ern​ment back​ing for power and in​fra​-
struc​ture in​vest​ments, where the gov​ern​ment is seen to be the best placed
to an​tic​i​pate, con​trol and min​imise cer​tain key risks.

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

Ex​ter​nal lenders to the sov​er​eign (whether MDBs or com​mer​cial banks)

are likely to ex​am​ine the quan​tum of and na​ture of con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties in
the same man​ner as ac​tual li​a​bil​i​ties, to as​sess the credit risk of the sov​er​-
eign (and the terms of the bor​row​ing it​self).

The ac​count​ing treat​ment of guar​an​tees mat​ters in light of the long-term

sus​tain​abil​ity of gov​ern​ment pro​grammes. Is​sues may arise in the con​text
of fu​ture gov​ern​ment spend​ing as a re​sult of poor ac​count​ing – and as seen
most re​cently by cer​tain Eu​ro​pean coun​tries post-fi​nan​cial cri​sis – this can
have po​ten​tially major fis​cal con​se​quences. Both the re​cent global fi​nan​cial
cri​sis and the Eu​ro​pean sov​er​eign debt cri​sis has led to height​ened con​-
cerns about the size of po​ten​tial con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties and as​so​ci​ated pub​lic
debt sus​tain​abil​ity. This means that defin​ing and ac​count​ing for a con​tin​-
gent li​a​bil​ity is now keenly looked at by in​ter​na​tional in​sti​tu​tions, par​tic​u​-
larly the In​ter​na​tional Mon​e​tary Fund (IMF).

The in​creas​ing at​ten​tion given to this form of con​tin​gent li​a​bil​ity ap​pears

to be dri​ven by three main fac​tors. The first is a pos​si​ble in​crease in the ad​-
verse im​pli​ca​tions of macro​eco​nomic risks. Where those risks are not
trans​par​ent (be​cause they haven’t been booked prop​erly), in​vestors will al​-
ways face un​cer​tainty as to the true ex​tent of a gov​ern​ment’s fi​nan​cial li​a​-
bil​i​ties. Sec​ondly, the fis​cal risks in​her​ent in con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties may be
sys​tem​i​cally re​lated—for ex​am​ple, guar​an​tees of an off​taker’s fi​nan​cial
oblig​a​tions under a se​ries of PPAs may eas​ily be called at the same time (if,
for ex​am​ple, there are se​ri​ous credit is​sues within that off​taker). Third and
per​haps most im​por​tantly, as dis​cussed above, con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties im​pose
no ex​press bud​getary con​straint (un​like tra​di​tional spend​ing) that can hin​-
der macro​eco​nomic con​trol.

Ac​cord​ing to the IMF, guar​an​tees ex​pose gov​ern​ments to greater fis​cal

risks be​cause of: (i) the grow​ing vol​ume and volatil​ity of pri​vate cap​i​tal
flows; (ii) the trans​for​ma​tion of the gov​ern​ment’s role from fi​nancier to
guar​an​tor of ser​vices (with​out the ac​com​pa​ny​ing ac​count​ing entry); and
(iii) pro​jects and the moral haz​ard that may re​sult from guar​an​tee​ing out​-
comes to be de​liv​ered by the pri​vate sec​tor.

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 DEBT SUSTAINABILITY

Es​sen​tially the con​cern is that this dis​torts de​ci​sion-mak​ing within pri​vate

sec​tor in​sti​tu​tions be​cause the de​ci​sion mak​ers do not an​tic​i​pate hav​ing to
ab​sorb the cost of a neg​a​tive out​come (such as an off​taker de​fault). The im​-
pli​ca​tion is that gov​ern​ment guar​an​tees or other forms of credit sup​port
may in the short run ap​pear at​trac​tive be​cause of their hid​den na​ture (their
fis​cal cost is in​vis​i​ble until they be​come due), how​ever, they may turn out
to be more ex​pen​sive in the long run, par​tic​u​larly if gov​ern​ments guar​an​-
tee all, rather than a part of the un​der​ly​ing as​sets.

Credit-rat​ing agen​cies and in​vest​ment banks are ac​cord​ingly pay​ing more

at​ten​tion to con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties in as​sess​ing sov​er​eign cred​it​wor​thi​ness.

How Else Could These Liabilities Be Accounted for?

The main ac​count​ing and re​port​ing chal​lenge is that the con​tin​gent na​ture
of guar​an​tees makes valu​ing them dif​fi​cult. How​ever, a num​ber of an​a​lyt​i​-
cal tech​niques are avail​able to value guar​an​tees and forms of credit sup​port.
The tools to do this in​clude both sim​ple and more com​pli​cated analy​ses
and quan​tifi​ca​tion of the credit risk.

It is cer​tainly the case that con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties which are likely to be called
should be pro​vided for in an​nual bud​gets as ap​pro​pri​a​tions.

It has been sug​gested that gov​ern​ments should take into ac​count the
volatil​ity of pub​lic fi​nanc​ing and the po​ten​tial im​pact of large pro​jects on
their over​all risk ex​po​sure. In some cases, it may be bet​ter for a gov​ern​-
ment to pro​vide di​rect bud​getary sup​port than a guar​an​tee be​cause of the
value of being able to pre​dict pub​lic fi​nanc​ing re​quire​ments.

A re​serve fund may also partly re​duce the fis​cal risks that can re​sult when
con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties fall due.

How Does the IMF Treat Government Guarantees or

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

How Does the IMF Treat Government Guarantees or

Other Sovereign Credit Support?
The Bret​ton Woods in​sti​tu​tions, being the IMF, to​gether with the World
Bank Group (WBG), look at a coun​try’s pub​lic sec​tor debt (PSD) for a
num​ber of pur​poses, in​clud​ing to mon​i​tor a coun​try’s eco​nomic and fi​nan​-
cial de​vel​op​ment and in order to pro​vide it with ei​ther pol​icy ad​vice or to
pro​vide it with fi​nanc​ing and other forms of sup​port.

PSD is used in a coun​try's debt sus​tain​abil​ity analy​sis (DSA) which as​sesses

how a coun​try’s level of debt and prospec​tive new bor​row​ing af​fects its
abil​ity to ser​vice its debt in the fu​ture. A dif​fer​ent DSA frame​work is used
for low-in​come coun​tries in order to help pol​i​cy​mak​ers strike a bal​ance be​-
tween achiev​ing de​vel​op​ment ob​jec​tives and main​tain​ing debt sus​tain​abil​-
ity.

In col​lab​o​ra​tion with the WBG, the IMF de​ter​mines the base​line used to
as​sess debt sus​tain​abil​ity and also de​ter​mine the risk clas​si​fi​ca​tions for each
coun​try. The as​sess​ment in​cludes var​i​ous as​pects such as:
• cal​cu​lat​ing cur​rent and fu​ture debt bur​den in​di​ca​tors;
• iden​ti​fy​ing the coun​try-spe​cific fac​tors to be in​cluded in the DSA;
• com​par​ing ex​ter​nal debt bur​den in​di​ca​tors with ap​pro​pri​ate in​dica​tive
debt thresh​olds; and
• im​por​tant for the power sec​tor, analysing how do​mes​tic debt or con​tin​-
gent li​a​bil​i​ties af​fect a coun​try’s ca​pac​ity to ser​vice fu​ture debt.

The main point to note here is that IMF/WBG guide​lines, poli​cies and
analy​sis vary from coun​try to coun​try and over time.

The IMF/WBG debt sus​tain​abil​ity analy​sis clas​si​fies coun​tries ac​cord​ing to

their prob​a​bil​ity of debt dis​tress. There are four cat​e​gories: low risk, mod​-
er​ate risk, high risk, and in debt dis​tress. Debt sus​tain​abil​ity can be as​sessed
on the basis of dif​fer​ent debt and debt-ser​vice in​di​ca​tors rel​a​tive to mea​-
sures of a coun​try’s abil​ity to repay. For in​stance, dif​fer​ent risk clas​si​fi​ca​-
tions also take into ac​count other fac​tors such as a coun​try’s pre​vi​ous track

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record in re​main​ing cur​rent on its debt-ser​vice oblig​a​tions. The most rel​e​-

vant mea​sure of re​pay​ment ca​pac​ity de​pends on the con​straints that are the
most bind​ing for a spe​cific coun​try. Ad​di​tion​ally, since ex​ter​nal of​fi​cial
debt is the dom​i​nant source of fi​nanc​ing in many low-in​come coun​tries,
the as​sess​ment crit​i​cally con​sid​ers the coun​try's abil​ity to ser​vice ex​ter​nal
pub​lic debt.

The clas​si​fi​ca​tion of risk dis​tress forms the basis for de​ter​min​ing fu​ture
grant, loan and guar​an​tee al​lo​ca​tion by IDA and by other mul​ti​lat​eral cred​-
i​tors such as the African De​vel​op​ment Fund. The clas​si​fi​ca​tion af​fects both
the amount and the pric​ing of such loans.

How Do Government Guarantees or Other Forms of

Credit Support Factor into the IMF's Risk Analysis?
Gov​ern​ment-guar​an​teed pri​vate sec​tor ex​ter​nal debt is often seen by the
IMF as a con​tin​gent ex​plicit li​a​bil​ity be​cause it is a legal oblig​a​tion for the
gov​ern​ment to make pay​ments to an ex​ter​nal cred​i​tor. For in​stance, in the
event that a large state-guar​an​teed power pro​ject runs into pay​ment dif​fi​-
cul​ties, the gov​ern​ment likely will pro​vide pub​lic fi​nanc​ing to cover such
con​tin​gen​cies, with the con​se​quence that these con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties can
lead to large in​creases in pub​lic debt.

Key to the IMF's analy​sis will al​ways be to look at the en​tity to which gov​-
ern​ment owes the oblig​a​tions (i.e. who is able to call the guar​an​tee). In
most cases, the guar​an​tee will be in favour of an ex​ter​nal (for​eign) in​vestor
or lender. In some cases, how​ever, monies under a sup​port agree​ment or
guar​an​tee may tech​ni​cally be owed to a lo​cally-in​cor​po​rated pro​ject com​-
pany. A gov​ern​ment may there​fore quite fairly con​sider this not as "ex​ter​-
nal" debt but rather as debt owed within the coun​try.

It is nonethe​less pru​dent to be​lieve that IMF would con​sider guar​an​tees in

favour of a local pro​ject com​pany as being a con​tin​gent legal li​a​bil​ity for
the gov​ern​ment to make pay​ments to an ex​ter​nal cred​i​tor and there​fore
clas​sify it as ex​ter​nal debt for its DSA. The rea​son is that the lo​cally-in​cor​-
po​rated pro​ject com​pany is likely to have its ac​tions and ac​counts con​-

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

trolled by ex​ter​nal pro​ject fi​nance lenders as part of a se​cu​rity pack​age

given to lenders as part of the trans​ac​tion. The as​sump​tion should, there​-
fore, be that sov​er​eign credit sup​port in a power pro​ject fi​nanc​ing will be
seen by the IMF as "ex​ter​nal debt" and, there​fore, an ex​plicit con​tin​gent li​-
a​bil​ity.

As part of un​der​tak​ing a holis​tic DSA, the rel​e​vant teams as​sess how other
fac​tors such as con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties can af​fect a coun​try’s ca​pac​ity for ser​-
vic​ing fu​ture debt ser​vice pay​ments. This is viewed at the most gen​eral
level as a “fis​cal risk”, which may be de​fined as any po​ten​tial dif​fer​ences be​-
tween ac​tual and ex​pected fis​cal out​comes (for ex​am​ple, fis​cal bal​ances and
pub​lic sec​tor debt).

It is clear that con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties in gen​eral, are con​sid​ered when the

IMF as​sesses a coun​try’s debt sus​tain​abil​ity. How​ever, as noted above, gov​-
ern​ments are not re​quired as such to dis​close in​for​ma​tion on their ex​po​-
sure to all types of pos​si​ble fu​ture fis​cal li​a​bil​i​ties. There​fore, it is not
pos​si​ble to spec​ify to what ex​tent gov​ern​ment-guar​an​teed pri​vate-
sec​tor ex​ter​nal debts fac​tor into the IMF’s risk analy​sis. It may be the
case that gov​ern​ment-guar​an​teed pri​vate sec​tor debt (that has not be​come
due) is not en​tirely taken into ac​count in a risk analy​sis be​cause not all gov​-
ern​ment con​tin​gen​cies are dis​closed to the rel​e​vant teams. When con​tin​-
gent li​a​bil​i​ties fall due and be​come the guar​an​tor’s re​spon​si​bil​ity, they are
trans​par​ent and taken into ac​count since the gov​ern​ment must then pay
the amounts due.

Until then, while these con​tin​gent li​a​bil​i​ties may not ap​pear on a bal​ance
sheet or di​rectly re​strict gov​ern​ment bor​row​ing lim​its by ex​ter​nal lenders,
this should not ob​scure the fact that a fi​nan​cial un​der​tak​ing by the gov​ern​-
ment re​mains a valid and en​force​able legal oblig​a​tion with po​ten​tially sig​-
nif​i​cant fi​nan​cial con​se​quences in the fu​ture. It is, there​fore, pru​dent for
gov​ern​ment de​part​ments to con​tin​u​ously mon​i​tor and re​view a gov​ern​-
ment's total bor​row​ings.

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6.8. Host Government

Considerations
Pro​vid​ing credit en​hance​ment in favour of IPP fi​nanc​ing can re​sult in a
num​ber of po​ten​tial ben​e​fits to a host gov​ern​ment, but it also pre​sents sig​-
nif​i​cant chal​lenges. Host gov​ern​ments are often un​clear as to why their
sup​port is needed and what is ac​tu​ally re​quired. In mak​ing de​ci​sions about
the sup​port needed from gov​ern​ment, all stake​hold​ers should have an ap​-
pre​ci​a​tion of the var​i​ous fac​tors the gov​ern​ment must bal​ance when
weigh​ing the ben​e​fits and chal​lenges of grant​ing credit en​hance​ment.

Often the main rea​son cited for why host gov​ern​ment credit en​hance​ment
is re​quired is sim​ply "if you don't give the sup​port, the pro​ject will not be
bank​able be​cause lenders will not lend." While there may be some truth to
this state​ment, it does not do jus​tice to the var​i​ous con​sid​er​a​tions a host
gov​ern​ment must de​cide upon.

In​stead, it is per​haps bet​ter to high​light some of the sub​stan​tial ben​e​fits to

a host gov​ern​ment of pro​vid​ing credit en​hance​ment, while ac​knowl​edg​ing
that there is no one-size-fits-all ap​proach and that pro​vid​ing such credit
en​hance​ment pre​sents a num​ber of chal​lenges for the host gov​ern​ment.

Active Limitation of Credit Enhancement Scope

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 HOST GOVERNMENT CONSIDERATIONS

Active Limitation of Credit Enhancement Scope

One of the ben​e​fits of pro​ject fi​nance is its po​ten​tial to re​duce the im​pact of
fi​nanc​ing an IPP pro​ject on a host gov​ern​ment's bal​ance sheet. Due to var​i​-
ous con​sid​er​a​tions, how​ever, the pri​vate in​vestors who would fund the up​-
front costs of an IPP may de​ter​mine that they will not pro​vide fund​ing to
the com​pany un​less host gov​ern​ment credit en​hance​ment is pro​vided.
Such credit en​hance​ment may im​pact the host gov​ern​ment's bal​ance sheet,
but it may be pos​si​ble to min​imise this im​pact through ac​tive ne​go​ti​a​tion
with the in​vestor par​ties. As noted in Sec​tion 7.7, de​pend​ing on how a host
gov​ern​ment ac​counts for the type of credit en​hance​ment pro​vided, they
may only need to book it as a con​tin​gent li​a​bil​ity on the host gov​ern​ment's
bal​ance sheet, rather than full en​cum​brance of its bal​ance sheet. This will
de​pend on their method of ac​count​ing and the type of in​stru​ment that is
se​lected.

In ad​di​tion, de​pend​ing on the risks that the in​vestors to the IPP are seek​ing
to cover, it may be pos​si​ble to ne​go​ti​ate for credit en​hance​ment that closely
tracks the con​cerns of the in​vestors and does not rep​re​sent a guar​an​tee of
the en​tire cost of the IPP. How​ever, this will largely de​pend on the con​-
cerns of the in​vestors and in some sit​u​a​tions, they may not be sat​is​fied with
any​thing less than a full guar​an​tee from the host gov​ern​ment.

Establishing a "Brand" Through Credit Enhancement

A host gov​ern​ment with a nascent power mar​ket may be able to use the
pro​vi​sion of credit en​hance​ment not only to at​tract in​ter​na​tional in​vestors
to fi​nance an IPP, but also to es​tab​lish a "brand" for the coun​try as a good
place in which to do busi​ness. This is par​tic​u​larly true if mul​ti​ple IPPs are
fi​nanced in this man​ner and the host gov​ern​ment and the off​taker are able
to demon​strate a re​li​able track record of pay​ment to the IPP. Once this
"brand​ing" and track record are es​tab​lished, it should be​come eas​ier for the
host gov​ern​ment to re​duce or do away with the pro​vi​sion of credit en​-
hance​ment for fu​ture IPPs.

Costs of Credit Enhancements Decrease Over Time

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Costs of Credit Enhancements Decrease Over Time

The im​pact of any credit en​hance​ment pro​vided by a host gov​ern​ment in
sup​port of an IPP's fi​nanc​ing should re​duce over time as the IPP pays
share​holder div​i​dends and re​pays its debt. There​fore, even if a host gov​-
ern​ment was re​quired to treat 100% of a credit en​hance​ment as an ac​tual li​-
a​bil​ity on its bal​ance sheet, this li​a​bil​ity will de​crease over time.

Limits of Host Government Financing

A host gov​ern​ment may reach a stage where they de​ter​mine that they do
not have ad​e​quate bal​ance sheet ca​pac​ity, or avail​able fi​nanc​ing at ac​cept​-
able prices from third par​ties, to fi​nance the con​tin​ued growth of its power
mar​ket. At this stage, if it is un​able or un​will​ing to utilise the de​vel​oper fi​-
nanc​ing and re​source based pro​ject fi​nanc​ing model, it may elect to avail it​-
self of the pro​ject fi​nance model. If it does so, and the pri​vate in​vestors
refuse to lend their sup​port with​out credit en​hance​ment, the host gov​ern​-
ment will need to de​cide be​tween the ex​pan​sion of its power mar​ket and
pro​vid​ing credit en​hance​ment. In the lat​ter sce​nario, the gov​ern​ment en​-
joys the ben​e​fit of greater power pro​duc​tion and (as dis​cussed above) po​-
ten​tially lim​it​ing the im​pact on its bal​ance sheet of the credit en​hance​ment
being sought.

Government Control
The risks that credit en​hance​ment is in​tended to cover often re​late to per​-
ceived risks that the sov​er​eign is best able to mit​i​gate, such as cer​tain po​lit​-
i​cal force ma​jeure events. As such the host gov​ern​ment is best po​si​tioned
to con​trol and po​ten​tially di​min​ish these per​ceived risks. The pay​ment risk
of the gov​ern​ment off​taker will likely di​min​ish as the power mar​ket ma​-
tures and the off​taker builds up a solid pay​ment track record.

Diversity of Interests within Government

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 HOST GOVERNMENT CONSIDERATIONS

Diversity of Interests within Government

When deal​ing with gov​ern​ments, there are mul​ti​ple gov​ern​ment stake​-
hold​ers in​volved di​rectly and in​di​rectly in the ne​go​ti​a​tion of a power pro​-
ject. These could in​clude the off​taker (if it is a state-owned util​ity), Min​-
istry of En​ergy, Min​istry of Fi​nance, Min​istry of Jus​tice, the reg​u​la​tory
agency for the sec​tor, the in​vest​ment pro​mo​tion agen​cies and the Par​lia​-
ment, among oth​ers.

A PPA is usu​ally signed by the off​taker and the pro​ject com​pany. The other
gov​ern​ment stake​hold​ers are often not di​rectly in​volved in the de​ci​sion-
mak​ing process but they may sig​nif​i​cantly in​flu​ence the process. Min​istries
of En​ergy set the pol​icy and will often ad​vo​cate for pri​vate in​vest​ment in
the sec​tor in order to as​sist them in meet​ing their goals of pro​vid​ing af​-
ford​able elec​tric​ity to the cit​i​zens of the host coun​try. In​vest​ment pro​mo​-
tion agen​cies are es​tab​lished to en​cour​age pri​vate in​vest​ment and fa​cil​i​tate
in​ter​ac​tions be​tween in​vestors and gov​ern​ment bod​ies. The reg​u​la​tory
agency pri​mar​ily seeks to bal​ance the com​pet​ing in​ter​ests of the cit​i​zens
(af​ford​able power) and the pro​ject com​pany (rea​son​able re​turn on in​vest​-
ment).

When deal​ing with is​sues of credit en​hance​ment, min​istries of fi​nance seek

to bal​ance the fi​nan​cial needs of the sov​er​eign, min​istries of jus​tice seek to
pro​tect the legal rights and en​sure con​tracts com​ply with na​tional leg​is​la​-
tion, while par​lia​ment seeks to rep​re​sent the views of the wider cit​i​zenry
and is often re​quired, by law, to ap​prove cer​tain types of con​tracts or gov​-
ern​ment oblig​a​tions.

Hav​ing the in​puts of each of these gov​ern​ment stake​hold​ers in the process

re​quires sig​nif​i​cant co​or​di​na​tion and a bal​ance of con​stituent in​ter​ests with
po​lit​i​cal im​pli​ca​tions that must be ap​pre​ci​ated by all stake​hold​ers.

Concerns Regarding Precedent

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

Concerns Regarding Precedent

Host gov​ern​ments may well be con​cerned about set​ting a prece​dent in giv​-
ing cer​tain types of credit en​hance​ments. They may fear that if they pro​-
vide a credit en​hance​ment to one IPP, it may be per​ceived as mar​ket prac​-
tice and this may be re​quired by all fu​ture IPPs. While it may be chal​leng​-
ing to change the per​cep​tion of the mar​ket re​gard​ing the avail​abil​ity of
credit en​hance​ments, a healthy pay​ment track record for ex​ist​ing IPPs and
an es​tab​lished brand for the coun​try, as a good place to do busi​ness, will
greatly fa​cil​i​tate such dis​cus​sions.

Debt Sustainability
When of​fer​ing credit en​hance​ments, host gov​ern​ments should con​sider
the im​pact this will have on the over​all debt sus​tain​abil​ity frame​work. This
is dis​cussed in more de​tail above in Sec​tion 6.7. The im​pact of these frame​-
works is that gov​ern​ments have lim​ited head​room to ab​sorb ad​di​tional li​a​-
bil​i​ties (con​tin​gent or oth​er​wise). The op​por​tu​nity cost of ac​cept​ing an ad​-
di​tional li​a​bil​ity should be con​sid​ered by all stake​hold​ers.

Fur​ther​more, many legal frame​works re​quire that any con​tract that cre​ates
a li​a​bil​ity or con​tin​gent li​a​bil​ity for the host coun​try will re​quire par​lia​-
men​tary ap​proval. This ap​proval process can be com​plex and time-con​-
sum​ing as most par​lia​ments have a com​pli​cated com​mit​tee sys​tem and
meet spar​ingly. Par​lia​ments must bal​ance the value of any one credit en​-
hance​ment against the com​pet​ing needs of the cit​i​zenry.

Multiple Developers Knocking on the Door

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 HOST GOVERNMENT CONSIDERATIONS

Multiple Developers Knocking on the Door

A host gov​ern​ment may be ap​proached by mul​ti​ple de​vel​op​ers at once. If
one of these de​vel​op​ers in​di​cates that it will not re​quire any credit en​-
hance​ment, the host gov​ern​ment may be in​clined to se​lect that de​vel​oper
over oth​ers. How​ever at​trac​tive the prospect of lim​ited or no credit en​-
hance​ment may ap​pear, in all cases the host gov​ern​ment should per​form
full due dili​gence on all such de​vel​op​ers to en​sure that they have the abil​ity
to de​liver on their promises. A key con​sid​er​a​tion in such due dili​gence is
ver​i​fi​ca​tion of the track record of the spon​sors of such pro​jects and con​fir​-
ma​tion of whether they have suc​cess​fully com​pleted pro​jects of sim​i​lar
mag​ni​tude in other ju​ris​dic​tions. Rep​u​ta​tional due dili​gence is also im​por​-
tant to avoid ex​po​sure to ‘vul​ture’ funds who prey on coun​tries under the
guise of in​vest​ments, es​pe​cially where the sov​er​eign has con​sid​er​able ex​po​-
sure under a sov​er​eign guar​an​tee.

Fi​nan​cial fail​ure of a pro​ject may re​sult in dis​con​ti​nu​ity or full ces​sa​tion of

its op​er​a​tions, which will be dis​rup​tive to the power mar​ket. In ad​di​tion,
any such dis​rup​tion could prove costly to the off​taker who may need to
com​plete the pro​ject or cover the short​fall in power pro​duc​tion through
ex​pen​sive emer​gency mea​sures (im​ports or re​serve power) or, worse,
through load shed​ding that trans​lates to loss of eco​nomic out​put. The gov​-
ern​ment may also have spent a con​sid​er​able amount on ad​vi​sors be​fore the
pro​jects ended pre​ma​turely. One of the ways of lim​it​ing this po​ten​tial
down​side is to re​quire prospec​tive IPPs to pro​vide de​vel​op​ment se​cu​rity
and per​for​mance bonds to sup​port their com​mit​ment to drive pro​jects to
con​clu​sion of plant con​struc​tion and com​mence​ment of com​mer​cial op​er​a​-
tions.

Foreign Currency Exchange Concerns

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

Foreign Currency Exchange Concerns

While pro​ject fi​nanc​ing often leads to in​creased for​eign in​vest​ment and fi​-
nanc​ing in a coun​try, a key con​sid​er​a​tion re​mains that power tar​iffs are
usu​ally de​nom​i​nated in the local cur​rency of the host coun​try. This is dealt
with in greater de​tail in Sec​tion 3.4. It is there​fore in​cum​bent on the host
gov​ern​ment as it for​mu​lates eco​nomic pol​icy to al​ways con​sider the im​pact
on the broader econ​omy of long-term PPAs that re​quire on-go​ing for​eign
cur​rency-in​dexed pay​ments.

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 SOVEREIGN SUPPORT

6.9. Summary of Key Points

Gov​ern​ments need to cre​ate the en​abling en​vi​ron​ment to fa​cil​i​tate the de​-
vel​op​ment of the host coun​try power sec​tor. The en​abling en​vi​ron​ment
may not be suf​fi​cient by it​self, and there​fore, to catal​yse IPP deals in the
mar​ket, the host coun​try gov​ern​ment may need to offer credit en​hance​-
ments. In​vestors are con​cerned with al​lo​cat​ing the risks of con​tin​u​ing pay​-
ment oblig​a​tions and ter​mi​na​tion pay​ments.
• Sov​er​eign Guar​an​tees are one of the more com​pre​hen​sive forms of
credit en​hance​ment that the sov​er​eign can offer to in​vestors.
• Let​ters of Com​fort and Sup​port pro​vide less sup​port than a full sov​-
er​eign guar​an​tee but are not un​com​mon.
• Put and Call Op​tion Agree​ments (PCOA) typ​i​cally deal with more
sig​nif​i​cant events trig​ger​ing ter​mi​na​tion, and do not pro​vide en​hance​-
ments for con​tin​u​ing pay​ment oblig​a​tions.
• Con​tin​u​ing pay​ment oblig​a​tions can be cov​ered by ei​ther Liq​uid​ity
Let​ters of Credit or Liq​uid​ity Es​crow Ac​counts. These in​stru​ments
do not pro​vide cov​er​age for ter​mi​na​tion-re​lated events.

It should be noted that the sov​er​eign guar​an​tee is not a guar​an​tee of the

debt oblig​a​tions owed to lenders by the pro​ject com​pany.

Gov​ern​ments should be cog​nisant of the im​pact of credit en​hance​ments on

their sus​tain​able debt frame​works de​vel​oped in co​op​er​a​tion with the IMF.
Host gov​ern​ments have many fac​tors to con​sider when de​ter​min​ing
whether to pro​vide sov​er​eign credit en​hance​ments.

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 SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

Government Options for Sharing Risk

The di​a​gram above is an il​lus​tra​tive ex​am​ple of the var​i​ous lev​els of risk

that a gov​ern​ment can take when aim​ing to de​liver a power pro​ject. It
shows that a gov​ern​ment fully procur​ing and pay​ing for a power plant on
its own bal​ance sheet is an as​sump​tion of a sig​nif​i​cant por​tion of risk by
the gov​ern​ment. Where risks re​main with the de​vel​oper or pri​vate sec​tor,
these are mit​i​gated, en​hanced or oth​er​wise al​lo​cated via the var​i​ous credit
en​hance​ment meth​ods de​scribed in this hand​book (both by the sov​er​eign
and by third par​ties). The above di​a​gram is in​dica​tive and il​lus​tra​tive only
– the strength or oth​er​wise of the var​i​ous gov​ern​ment credit en​hance​ment
doc​u​ments and how en​force​able they are – will be a func​tion of what they
ac​tu​ally con​tain and will al​ways be sub​ject to draft​ing and ne​go​ti​a​tion and
are pri​mar​ily a func​tion of the wider macro​eco​nomic and reg​u​la​tory en​vi​-
ron​ment of a coun​try. Nonethe​less, the ob​jec​tive of the di​a​gram is to il​lus​-
trate in sim​ple terms the al​lo​ca​tion of risk be​tween the gov​ern​ment and
the de​vel​oper.

126
7. Third Party Credit
Support and Risk
Mitigation
7.1. Introduction
7.2. DFI Guarantees
7.3. DFI-Guaranteed LC Structures
7.4. Political Risk Insurance
7.5. A/B Loan Syndication
7.6. Summary of Key Points

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 THIRD PARTY CREDIT SUPPORT AND RISK MITIGATION

7.1. Introduction
This sec​tion fo​cuses on the dif​fer​ent credit en​hance​ment and po​lit​i​cal risk
mit​i​ga​tion prod​ucts that third par​ties offer in the con​text of IPPs. These
prod​ucts can be used for two sep​a​rate pur​poses.

First, they can be used to pro​vide a sec​ond level of credit en​hance​ment to

that pro​vided by a sov​er​eign:
• if the credit of a sov​er​eign it​self is not strong enough to offer the level
of as​sur​ance re​quired by in​vestors and lenders;
• where the sov​er​eign is un​will​ing to offer a full sov​er​eign guar​an​tee to a
de​vel​oper; or
• where the des​ig​nated off​taker in a coun​try is not cred​it​wor​thy enough
to take on the full pay​ment oblig​a​tions re​sult​ing from the PPA. This is
par​tic​u​larly rel​e​vant in re​la​tion to an off​taker or host coun​try’s oblig​a​-
tion to pay a pur​chase price fol​low​ing the ter​mi​na​tion of a PPA or the
ex​er​cise of a put op​tion.

Sec​ondly, a few of these tools – such as po​lit​i​cal risk in​sur​ance – can be

used to ad​dress risks that are not cov​ered by di​rect con​trac​tual oblig​a​tions.

Credit en​hance​ment by third par​ties can bring sig​nif​i​cant ben​e​fits to the

pro​ject and to the var​i​ous stake​hold​ers, in​clud​ing:
• widen​ing the fi​nanc​ing op​tions avail​able to the pro​ject com​pany;
• re​duc​ing debt pric​ing; and
• length​en​ing the tenor of the debt.

Spon​sors and com​mer​cial lenders will also often wel​come MDB or DFI
par​tic​i​pa​tion in a pro​ject be​cause of the gen​eral "halo ef​fect" that the par​-
tic​i​pa​tion in a pro​ject by MDBs or other DFIs can have on the bank​a​bil​ity
of a pro​ject, as a po​lit​i​cal risk mit​i​gant.

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 THIRD PARTY CREDIT SUPPORT AND RISK MITIGATION

7.2. DFI Guarantees

There is a range of guar​an​tees that can be de​ployed by MDBs and other
DFIs to ad​dress the dif​fer​ent types of fi​nan​cial risks for an IPP. These guar​-
an​tees can pro​vide credit en​hance​ment by mit​i​gat​ing risk, and are some​-
times re​ferred to by var​i​ous DFIs as Par​tial Credit Guar​an​tees (PCGs), Par​-
tial Risk Guar​an​tees (PRGs), or Pro​ject-Based Guar​an​tees. These guar​an​-
tees can be di​vided into loan guar​an​tees and pay​ment guar​an​tees, which
are de​scribed in de​tail below. DFI guar​an​tees will typ​i​cally sup​port the
most crit​i​cal fi​nan​cial oblig​a​tions in a power pro​ject, such as the debt ser​-
vice oblig​a​tions on loans or pro​ject bonds or pay​ment oblig​a​tions under
the PPA and other pro​ject agree​ments.

Advantages of DFI Guarantees

DFI guar​an​tees offer fi​nan​cial risk mit​i​ga​tion and credit en​hance​ment to
power pro​jects in a num​ber of ways. Gov​ern​ments and DFIs work to​gether
on a broad port​fo​lio of de​vel​op​ment ini​tia​tives, and there​fore host gov​ern​-
ments have strong in​cen​tives for main​tain​ing a pos​i​tive re​la​tion​ship with
these in​sti​tu​tions. This in​cen​tive will often lead gov​ern​ments to main​tain
their pay​ment or con​trac​tual oblig​a​tions, or di​rect their state-owned en​ti​-
ties to do so, in trans​ac​tions in​volv​ing DFI sup​port.

A gov​ern​ment or state-owned en​tity's fail​ure to ho​n​our com​mit​ments in a

DFI-sup​ported pro​ject could:
• jeop​ar​dise ex​ist​ing and fu​ture de​vel​op​ment fi​nanc​ing to the coun​try;
• trig​ger re​im​burse​ment oblig​a​tions under an in​dem​nity agree​ment or
counter-guar​an​tee from the host gov​ern​ment (if ap​plic​a​ble); and
• threaten the gov​ern​ment's abil​ity to seek other sources of fund​ing, since
DFIs are often seen as lenders of last re​sort.

The close work​ing re​la​tion​ship be​tween DFIs and gov​ern​ment en​hances

the credit not only of the loans that are guar​an​teed by the DFI, but also

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 DFI GUARANTEES

serves as a risk mit​i​gant that fur​ther en​hances the over​all credit of a power
pro​ject. This en​hance​ment is some​times re​ferred to as a "halo ef​fect".

Types of Guarantees
The prod​ucts of​fered by DFIs to mit​i​gate fi​nan​cial risk and en​hance the
credit of a power pro​ject are typ​i​cally grouped into two broad cat​e​gories,
since they ben​e​fit two dif​fer​ent stake​hold​ers in the pro​ject struc​ture. While
this sec​tion de​scribes some of the most com​mon DFI guar​an​tee struc​tures,
it should be un​der​stood that DFIs have a wide va​ri​ety of guar​an​tee prod​-
ucts, struc​tures and loan in​stru​ments, not all of which are cov​ered in this
hand​book.

Loan Guarantee
The first broad type of DFI guar​an​tee is the loan guar​an​tee, which mit​i​gates
the risk of non-pay​ment by the pro​ject com​pany to the pro​ject's lenders,
com​monly re​ferred to as a debt ser​vice de​fault, as the re​sult of ac​tion or in​-
ac​tion by the gov​ern​ment or the state-owned off​taker. The lat​ter con​di​tion
is a crit​i​cal fea​ture of the loan guar​an​tee, since this en​sures that the prod​uct
does not act as gen​eral cov​er​age of the debt pay​ment oblig​a​tion of the pro​-
ject com​pany to the pro​ject lenders. The ben​e​fi​ciary of the loan guar​an​tee
in the IPP con​text is the pro​ject's lenders rather than the pro​ject com​pany.
It is im​por​tant to note that if there is a dis​pute about the gov​ern​ment's
oblig​a​tions, pay​ment to the ben​e​fi​ciary under the DFI guar​an​tee is made
only after the dis​pute has been re​solved am​i​ca​bly or through the dis​pute
res​o​lu​tion pro​ce​dures set out in the pro​ject con​tracts.

The typ​i​cal struc​ture of a loan guar​an​tee is set out in di​a​gram below. It

should be un​der​stood that this di​a​gram does not rep​re​sent every type of
loan guar​an​tee or par​tial credit guar​an​tee avail​able from a DFI. In par​tic​u​-
lar, cer​tain DFIs may offer guar​an​tees with​out an in​dem​nity agree​ment,
but cor​re​spond​ingly at a higher cost to the pro​ject, since the DFIs are ex​-
posed to the com​mer​cial risk of the pro​ject with​out a host gov​ern​ment in​-
dem​nity to sup​port the oblig​a​tion. In​stead of an in​dem​nity agree​ment, cer​-

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 THIRD PARTY CREDIT SUPPORT AND RISK MITIGATION

tain DFIs may have a bi​lat​eral or treaty-level agree​ment with the host gov​-
ern​ment, which may also im​pact the cost of cov​er​age.

Loan Guarantee

Payment Guarantee
The sec​ond broad type of DFI guar​an​tee is the pay​ment guar​an​tee. Un​like
the loan guar​an​tee, the pay​ment guar​an​tee is meant to ben​e​fit the pro​ject
com​pany di​rectly and may cover a num​ber of dif​fer​ent pay​ment oblig​a​-
tions. These pay​ment oblig​a​tions may in​clude, among other things:
• Re​cur​ring pay​ments by the off​taker to the pro​ject com​pany under a
PPA;

Spe​cial in​stances of rev​enue re​place​ment pay​ments by the gov​ern​ment

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 DFI GUARANTEES

• Spe​cial in​stances of rev​enue re​place​ment pay​ments by the gov​ern​ment

to the pro​ject com​pany for oblig​a​tions for which gov​ern​ment is li​able;
and
• Early ter​mi​na​tion pay​ments by the gov​ern​ment to the pro​ject com​pany.

The typ​i​cal struc​ture of a pay​ment guar​an​tee is set out in the di​a​gram

below. It should be un​der​stood that this di​a​gram does not rep​re​sent every
type of pay​ment guar​an​tee or par​tial risk guar​an​tee avail​able from a DFI.
Cer​tain DFIs may offer pay​ment guar​an​tees with​out an in​dem​nity agree​-
ment, with sim​i​lar im​pli​ca​tions to those set out in the loan guar​an​tees sec​-
tion above.

Payment Guarantee

Contractual Framework for Guarantee Structures

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 THIRD PARTY CREDIT SUPPORT AND RISK MITIGATION

Contractual Framework for Guarantee Structures

The con​tract struc​ture of a DFI guar​an​tee can be ex​tremely com​plex, given
the nu​mer​ous legal oblig​a​tions that must be es​tab​lished among the host
gov​ern​ment, the off​taker, the DFI, the com​mer​cial lenders, the pro​ject
com​pany and (if ap​plic​a​ble) the LC is​su​ing bank. The key agree​ments ne​-
go​ti​ated in a guar​an​tee trans​ac​tion in​clude:
• Guar​an​tee Agree​ment – the rel​e​vant guar​an​tee be​tween the DFI and
the ben​e​fi​ciary.
• Pro​ject Agree​ment – gen​er​ally be​tween the DFI and the pro​ject com​-
pany, cus​tom​ar​ily set​ting out oblig​a​tions from the pro​ject par​ties in
favour of the DFI to pay the rel​e​vant guar​an​tee fees and un​der​tak​ings as
to the con​duct and im​ple​men​ta​tion of the pro​ject in ac​cor​dance with
the rel​e​vant DFI’s guide​lines. Breaches of these un​der​tak​ings may re​sult
in ter​mi​na​tion and/or sus​pen​sion of the guar​an​tee cov​er​age fol​low​ing
no​ti​fi​ca​tion by the DFI to the is​su​ing bank and an ap​pro​pri​ate grace pe​-
riod.
• Sup​port Agree​ment – these may be ne​go​ti​ated be​tween the DFI and
the off​taker, be​tween the DFI and the gov​ern​ment or even sim​ply be​-
tween the pro​ject com​pany and the off​taker de​pend​ing on the guar​an​tee
struc​ture of​fered by the DFI. The sup​port agree​ment cus​tom​ar​ily sets
out the off​taker/gov​ern​ment’s un​der​tak​ings with re​spect to the pro​ject.
De​pend​ing on the DFI’s ap​proach and the na​ture of the pro​ject, these
pro​vi​sions may be con​tained in a sep​a​rate agree​ment (such as a Di​rect
Agree​ment) or in the un​der​ly​ing trans​ac​tion agree​ments.
• Host Gov​ern​ment In​dem​nity Agree​ment – is ne​go​ti​ated be​tween
the host gov​ern​ment and the DFI, under which the host gov​ern​ment
agrees to in​dem​nify the DFI if the DFI pays upon a de​mand for pay​ment
under the guar​an​tee. This is some​times re​ferred to as a counter-guar​an​-
tee. (As noted above, how​ever, cer​tain in​sti​tu​tions may offer guar​an​tees
with​out an in​dem​nity agree​ment, but cor​re​spond​ingly at a higher cost
to the pro​ject, given the lack of a host gov​ern​ment in​dem​nity to sup​port

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 DFI GUARANTEES

the oblig​a​tion. In​stead of an in​dem​nity agree​ment, cer​tain DFIs may

have a bi​lat​eral or treaty-level agree​ment with the host gov​ern​ment,
which may also im​pact the cost of cov​er​age.)

All of the fi​nance and pro​ject doc​u​ments are re​quired to be in a form ac​-
cept​able to the DFI pro​vid​ing the guar​an​tee.

General Considerations for DFI Guarantees

Applicability and Duration of Guarantees

DFI guar​an​tees are in​tended to be flex​i​ble and can be used for any com​-
mer​cial debt in​stru​ment (loans, bonds) pro​vided by any pri​vate in​sti​tu​tion,
in​clud​ing debt pro​vided by spon​sors in the form of share​holder loans.
They can also sup​port other pay​ment oblig​a​tions to pri​vate-sec​tor en​ti​ties,
such as pay​ments to pri​vate-sec​tor sell​ers or sup​pli​ers under a PPA. The
du​ra​tion of the guar​an​tee is also flex​i​ble and will nor​mally cor​re​spond to
the term of the un​der​ly​ing guar​an​teed debt in​vest​ment or oblig​a​tion.

Allocation Issues
In de​ter​min​ing whether to use a DFI guar​an​tee that re​quires a host gov​-
ern​ment counter-in​dem​nity, the host gov​ern​ment must con​sider how the
guar​an​tee will im​pact their bal​ance sheet, their over​all coun​try strat​egy,
and their coun​try al​lo​ca​tions for fi​nanc​ing from the ap​plic​a​ble DFI.

Gov​ern​ment bal​ance sheet is​sues are dis​cussed in Sec​tion 6.7 (Debt Sus​-
tain​abil​ity).

In the case of MDBs, coun​try al​lo​ca​tions are set on a pe​ri​odic basis, keep​-
ing in mind that these in​sti​tu​tions must al​lo​cate their lim​ited re​sources
across their el​i​gi​ble coun​tries. While a guar​an​tee typ​i​cally has a dif​fer​ent
im​pact on a MDB's coun​try al​lo​ca​tion than a di​rect loan, the guar​an​tee still
uses up some of the avail​able coun​try al​lo​ca​tion. What​ever the pre​cise im​-
pact on the coun​try al​lo​ca​tion, this will mean that less re​sources will be
avail​able for the host gov​ern​ment’s other de​vel​op​ment pri​or​i​ties.

Partial vs. Full Scope of Guarantees

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 THIRD PARTY CREDIT SUPPORT AND RISK MITIGATION

Partial vs. Full Scope of Guarantees

DFI guar​an​tees may offer full or par​tial cov​er​age of debt.

DFIs gen​er​ally or often pre​fer par​tial (rather than full) cov​er​age for a num​-
ber of rea​sons, in​clud​ing:
• when a DFI pro​vides full guar​an​tee cov​er​age, the com​mer​cial lenders
and other par​ties may not con​duct as ex​ten​sive a due dili​gence on the
un​der​ly​ing risk;
• par​tial fi​nanc​ing is con​sis​tent with a de​vel​op​ment pol​icy goal of as​sist​-
ing gov​ern​ments or pub​lic-sec​tor en​ti​ties in cre​at​ing a track record of
cred​it​wor​thi​ness as bor​row​ers or pay​ers by re​tain​ing some un​guar​an​-
teed pay​ment oblig​a​tions; and
• par​tial fi​nanc​ing al​lows the DFI to catal​yse more third-party fi​nanc​ing
with less of its own funds.

Ul​ti​mately, the pur​pose of these credit en​hance​ments is to mit​i​gate risk

and to dis​trib​ute it more ap​pro​pri​ately in a par​tic​u​lar pro​ject, not to elim​i​-
nate it or shift it all to one party.

Certain Financial Considerations with DFI Guarantees

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 DFI GUARANTEES

Certain Financial Considerations with DFI Guarantees

• The guar​an​tee may or may not cover ac​cel​er​ated debt (i.e. full re​pay​-
ment of out​stand​ing debt) in a de​fault sit​u​a​tion, de​pend​ing on the par​-
tic​u​lar DFI's poli​cies. If the guar​an​tee does not cover ac​cel​er​ated debt,
the rel​e​vant DFI will typ​i​cally pay out under the guar​an​tee on the basis
of the orig​i​nal amor​ti​sa​tion sched​ule, sub​ject to that DFI’s par​tic​u​lar in​-
sti​tu​tional re​quire​ments.
• From the time that a pay​ment has been missed to a guar​an​teed party,
the ben​e​fi​ciary of the guar​an​tee must fol​low a spe​cific course of ac​tion
to claim and draw down on the guar​an​tee. This process could take up to
sev​eral months or even years, de​pend​ing on the cir​cum​stances of the
de​fault and the par​tic​u​lar DFI's in​sti​tu​tional re​quire​ments.
• The guar​an​tee typ​i​cally pro​vides the DFI with a right of sub​ro​ga​tion, so
that, after the DFI makes a pay​ment under the guar​an​tee, it can step
into the shoes of the ben​e​fi​ciary and re​cover the amount, if any, that the
guar​an​teed party failed to pay.

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7.3. DFI-Guaranteed LC Structures

While a DFI guar​an​tee can be used for a va​ri​ety of pur​poses, in many cases
there are lim​i​ta​tions on the DFI's abil​ity to make pay​ments under the guar​-
an​tee in​stru​ment with​out a full res​o​lu​tion of dis​putes and pass​ing of a
spec​i​fied pe​riod of time. There​fore, in​sert​ing a standby let​ter of credit
(SBLC) into the struc​ture is a com​mon way to cre​ate liq​uid​ity sup​port
where the fi​nan​cial po​si​tion of the state-owned off​taker may be con​-
strained or lim​ited. This guar​an​teed LC struc​ture – some​times re​ferred to
as a "PRG LC" – al​lows the ben​e​fi​ciary to draw from the LC as pay​ment de​-
faults occur, rather than seek pay​ment from the DFI for each in​stance of
pay​ment de​fault.

The guar​an​teed LC struc​ture en​tails the pro​vi​sion of an SBLC or equiv​a​-

lent in​stru​ment by a com​mer​cial is​su​ing bank in favour of the pro​ject com​-
pany. The SBLC is typ​i​cally put in place by the state-owned off​taker to
cover the off​taker's pay​ment oblig​a​tions under the PPA. Is​suance of the
SBLC will likely be a con​di​tion prece​dent to ef​fec​tive​ness of the PPA and
may also be a pre-con​di​tion for the dis​burse​ment of se​nior debt for the
con​struc​tion of the pro​ject.

A typ​i​cal struc​ture for a guar​an​teed SBLC is set out in the di​a​gram below.

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 DFI-GUARANTEED LC STRUCTURES

Guaranteed LC Structure

As il​lus​trated in the di​a​gram above, there are three pri​mary fi​nan​cial com​-
mit​ments under the guar​an​teed LC struc​ture:

First, if the off​taker fails to make a pay​ment to the pro​ject com​pany under
the PPA, the pro​ject com​pany may draw from the LC is​su​ing bank under
the guar​an​teed LC to sat​isfy the non-pay​ment by the off​taker.

Sec​ondly, if the pro​ject com​pany then makes a draw under the guar​an​teed
LC, the draw​ing will au​to​mat​i​cally con​vert into a loan from the is​su​ing
bank to the off​taker pur​suant to a re​im​burse​ment and credit agree​ment
(RCA) be​tween the off​taker and the is​su​ing bank. The gen​eral rule is that

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 THIRD PARTY CREDIT SUPPORT AND RISK MITIGATION

the off​taker then has an ex​tended pe​riod (typ​i​cally 6-12 months) in which
to repay the is​su​ing bank for any such loan, with in​ter​est ac​cru​ing at the
agreed rate dur​ing that pe​riod.

Third, if the off​taker fails to re​im​burse the is​su​ing bank under the RCA
when re​pay​ment is due, the is​su​ing bank may make a de​mand for pay​ment
from the DFI under the guar​an​tee. If this oc​curs, the DFI will make a pay​-
ment di​rectly to the is​su​ing bank to sat​isfy the out​stand​ing pay​ment due
from the off​taker.

The ul​ti​mate re​course for a DFI under a guar​an​teed LC is the in​dem​nity

agree​ment with the host gov​ern​ment, sim​i​lar to the gen​eral pay​ment and
loan guar​an​tees out​lined above.

Role of the LC Issuing Bank

Pay​ment is made by the is​su​ing bank against a de​mand by the pro​ject com​-
pany, with​out fur​ther ex​am​i​na​tion of ques​tions of fact (e.g. whether the
pay​ment was ac​tu​ally due under the PPA, etc.) This is of fun​da​men​tal im​-
por​tance to the is​su​ing bank, which is ul​ti​mately look​ing to the credit of
the DFI as guar​an​tor (and not to the off​taker or the host gov​ern​ment) to
cover its ex​po​sure. The struc​ture, there​fore, pro​vides liq​uid​ity sup​port for
the off​taker, en​sur​ing a more bank​able PPA for the ben​e​fit of the pro​ject
com​pany and the lenders. A fur​ther rea​son for LC is​su​ing banks not being
re​quired to in​ves​ti​gate the un​der​ly​ing rea​son for the LC being drawn is the
fact that the LC trans​ac​tion is dis​tinct from the un​der​ly​ing busi​ness trans​-
ac​tion, and is​su​ing banks, as a gen​eral prin​ci​ple, deal with doc​u​ments alone
and are not best suited to un​der​take such en​quiries.

Contractual Framework for Guaranteed LC Structures

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 DFI-GUARANTEED LC STRUCTURES

Contractual Framework for Guaranteed LC Structures

The con​trac​tual frame​work of a DFI-guar​an​teed LC is sim​i​lar to the con​-
tract struc​ture for gen​eral DFI guar​an​tees de​scribed in Sec​tion 7.2 above,
in​clud​ing a Guar​an​tee Agree​ment be​tween the DFI and the LC is​su​ing
bank as the ben​e​fi​ciary, a Pro​ject Agree​ment be​tween the DFI and the pro​-
ject com​pany, a Sup​port Agree​ment be​tween the DFI and the off​taker or
host gov​ern​ment, and an In​dem​nity Agree​ment from the host gov​ern​-
ment. In ad​di​tion, the guar​an​teed LC struc​ture will in​clude:
• SBLC – a standby let​ter of credit, which is an un​con​di​tional and ir​rev​o​-
ca​ble pay​ment un​der​tak​ing in favour of the ben​e​fi​ciary from the is​su​ing
bank. While such un​der​tak​ings are gen​er​ally char​ac​terised as ir​rev​o​ca​-
ble, the SBLC will con​tain spe​cific ter​mi​na​tion and sus​pen​sion events,
in​clud​ing those set out in the DFI guar​an​tee and the PPA ter​mi​na​tion
clause. SBLCs may be gov​erned by stan​dard terms such as the Uni​form
Cus​toms and Prac​tice for Doc​u​men​tary Cred​its or the In​ter​na​tional
Standby Prac​tices, and the is​suer is obliged to make a pay​ment against a
de​mand that con​forms to those stan​dards (in​clud​ing all ap​pro​pri​ate sup​-
port​ing doc​u​ments).
• RCA – a loan agree​ment be​tween the ap​pli​cant/off​taker and the is​su​ing
bank, pro​vid​ing that any draw​ing under the SBLC con​verts into a loan
owing from the off​taker to the is​suer, gen​er​ally to be re​paid within 6-12
months of the date of draw under the LC. The RCA will gen​er​ally in​-
clude clas​sic covenants, events of de​fault and con​di​tions prece​dent. The
RCA will also de​scribe the cir​cum​stances giv​ing rise to a right to sub​sti​-
tute the is​su​ing bank. Note that a ter​mi​na​tion or rescis​sion of the guar​-
an​tee would in turn nor​mally be an event of de​fault under the RCA, en​-
ti​tling the is​su​ing bank to ac​cel​er​ate and ex​er​cise its reme​dies against
the off​taker (e.g. cash-col​lat​er​alise out​stand​ing oblig​a​tions, de​clare out​-
stand​ing ad​vances im​me​di​ately due and payable, etc.).

All of the fi​nance and pro​ject doc​u​ments are re​quired to be in a form ac​-
cept​able to the DFI pro​vid​ing the guar​an​tee.

Detailed Considerations for Guaranteed LC Structures

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Detailed Considerations for Guaranteed LC Structures

There are a num​ber of more de​tailed is​sues to con​sider when struc​tur​ing a
Guar​an​teed LC which in​clude the fol​low​ing:

Tenor of SBLC
The SBLC will gen​er​ally be re​quired to re​main in force for an ex​tended pe​-
riod, gen​er​ally equiv​a​lent to the term of the PPA / se​nior debt. Nor​mally,
the LC struc​ture is such that there is a fixed max​i​mum amount (e.g.
$100m) avail​able under the LC for the full term of its avail​abil​ity (e.g. 15
yrs.), how​ever, SBLCs may some​times set out lower and/or fluc​tu​at​ing an​-
nual sub-lim​its. This can allow a cost sav​ing for the ap​pli​cant (where there
was no need for the full $100m in, say, years 1 – 3 of the PPA, or where
sub-lim​its were ap​pro​pri​ate through​out the life of the PPA). How​ever, as a
re​sult of Basel III, the is​su​ing bank will now es​sen​tially be re​quired to lock
up cap​i​tal equiv​a​lent to the max​i​mum amount for the en​tire term of the
LC, ir​re​spec​tive of whether the full max​i​mum amount is ca​pa​ble of being
called in one given year, or not.

One al​ter​na​tive, to save costs for the ap​pli​cant, would be to have a se​-
quence of short-term LCs in line with the rel​e​vant ex​po​sure under the
PPA, i.e. ad​just​ing the max​i​mum amount each year re​sult​ing in a one-year
tenor. This, how​ever, gives rise to a need for an​nual re​place​ment, and,
there​fore, re​place​ment risk on the part of the power pro​ducer. Note in par​-
tic​u​lar, that the guar​an​tee struc​ture does not allow for a draw​down of the
SBLC if the off​taker is mak​ing timely pay​ments but there is a re​plac​ing gap.
Spon​sors have in many cases taken the view that the long-term cer​tainty of
avail​abil​ity out​weighed the cost sav​ings and re​place​ment risk, al​though this
may not be the case in every trans​ac​tion.

Scope of Pay​ments Guar​an​teed under the SBLC

The cov​er​age of the LC will be ne​go​ti​ated, but the gen​eral prin​ci​ple is that
the SBLC will be avail​able for (1) rou​tine pay​ments under the PPA
(whether ca​pac​ity/en​ergy/fuel stock/etc.) and (2) lump sum ter​mi​na​tion
com​pen​sa​tion. De​pend​ing on the de​tail of the un​der​ly​ing trans​ac​tion, cov​-

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 DFI-GUARANTEED LC STRUCTURES

er​age is also pos​si​ble on other mat​ters (e.g., loss to the pro​ducer aris​ing
from local events of po​lit​i​cal force ma​jeure, where that is cov​ered by the
gov​ern​ment/off​taker in ques​tion, e.g. under a sep​a​rate state guar​an​tee).

DFIs will gen​er​ally only sup​port pay​ment of undis​puted amounts, or

amounts dis​puted which have been set​tled at the time of mak​ing the de​-
mand. The ben​e​fi​ciary of the LC will, in its de​mand, be re​quired to cer​tify
that the pay​ment is undis​puted, and/or that a rel​e​vant grace pe​riod has
passed with​out no​ti​fi​ca​tion of a dis​pute oc​cur​ring. In some cases, com​mer​-
cial banks have ap​plied dif​fer​ent mar​gins to draw​ings de​pend​ing on the
sta​tus of pay​ments as dis​puted/undis​puted (if per​mit​ted by the DFI).

Scope for Sus​pen​sion and Ter​mi​na​tion under the Guar​an​tee

The guar​an​tee pro​vided by the DFI is in​tended to be “un​con​di​tional”.
Where the is​su​ing bank makes a pay​ment under the LC, then so long as it
is made against a con​form​ing de​mand – i.e. so long as the is​suer does not
pay out against non-con​form​ing or in​ad​e​quate doc​u​ments or make some
equiv​a​lent error – the gen​eral prin​ci​ple is that the guar​an​tee will apply to
that ad​vance.

The DFI may seek to sus​pend or ter​mi​nate its oblig​a​tions under the guar​-
an​tee. This may be for breach of the pro​ject agree​ment on the part of the
com​pany or off​taker (e.g. sanc​tion​able prac​tices or cor​rup​tion on the part
of the com​pany, unau​tho​rised change of con​trol, in​sol​vency, un​ap​proved
pri​vati​sa​tion, etc.), or the rel​e​vant host na​tion ceas​ing to be a mem​ber in
good stand​ing by the rel​e​vant DFI.

The guar​an​tee may also be ter​mi​nated as a re​sult of cer​tain is​suer-spe​cific

events, in​clud​ing cor​rup​tion/sanc​tion​able prac​tices in re​la​tion to the pro​-
ject and/or in​sol​vency type events. There may be a dis​cus​sion in the RCA
around the event of de​fault for guar​an​tee ter​mi​na​tion where this is trig​-
gered as a re​sult of acts of the is​su​ing bank. Non-pay​ment of fees by the
ben​e​fi​ciary/off​taker (as the case may be) will also trig​ger a ter​mi​na​tion
right.

The gen​eral rule, how​ever, is that the guar​an​tee will con​tinue to apply to

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The gen​eral rule, how​ever, is that the guar​an​tee will con​tinue to apply to
ad​vances made prior to the sus​pen​sion/ter​mi​na​tion.

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 THIRD PARTY CREDIT SUPPORT AND RISK MITIGATION

7.4. Political Risk Insurance

Po​lit​i​cal risk in​sur​ance (PRI) of​fers cov​er​age for po​lit​i​cal risks not di​rectly
cov​ered under the PPA or to back​stop those risks that are cov​ered under
the PPA. Po​lit​i​cal risks are as​so​ci​ated with gov​ern​ment ac​tions which deny
or re​strict the right of an in​vestor or lender (i) to use or ben​e​fit from the
pro​ject as​sets and neg​a​tively im​pact the pro​ject rev​enues; or (ii) which re​-
duce the value of the pro​ject com​pany. Po​lit​i​cal risks in​clude war, rev​o​lu​-
tions, gov​ern​ment seizure of prop​erty, and ac​tions to re​strict the move​-
ment of prof​its or other rev​enues from within a coun​try. A fur​ther de​f​i​n​i​-
tion is con​tained in Sec​tion 4.4 above.

Providers
PRI can be pro​vided by both pub​lic and pri​vate in​sur​ers.

Pub​lic in​sur​ers in​clude both ECAs and DFIs. These in​sur​ers typ​i​cally have
man​dates to sup​port the pol​icy goals of their spon​sor​ing gov​ern​ment(s) or
in​sti​tu​tion(s), such as fos​ter​ing de​vel​op​ment or fa​cil​i​tat​ing ex​ports in cer​-
tain emerg​ing mar​kets. These man​dates may also place re​stric​tions on the
types of in​vest​ments that are el​i​gi​ble for cov​er​age. Such re​stric​tions may
ad​dress en​vi​ron​men​tal is​sues, the na​tion​al​ity of the in​vestors, el​i​gi​bil​ity of
the in​vest​ment, or other is​sues de​rived from the in​sur​ers' pol​icy ob​jec​tives.

Pri​vate in​sur​ers have greater flex​i​bil​ity in the types of pro​jects and breadth
of cov​er​age they can un​der​write, but have lower tol​er​ance for risk to pro​-
vide cov​er​age in high-risk mar​kets or to un​der​write risks which can​not be
rein​sured. They also typ​i​cally have shorter tenors.

What is Covered?
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 POLITICAL RISK INSURANCE

What is Covered?
Tra​di​tional PRI poli​cies are in​sur​ance con​tracts that pro​vide pro​tec​tion
against com​mer​cial losses that re​sult from as​set-backed and trade-re​lated
risks. As​set-backed risk in​cludes con​fis​ca​tion, ex​pro​pri​a​tion, na​tion​al​i​sa​-
tion, de​pri​va​tion, forced di​vesti​ture, forced aban​don​ment, ar​bi​tral award
de​fault, li​cense/per​mit can​cel​la​tion, em​bargo, war and po​lit​i​cal vi​o​lence.
Trade-re​lated risk in​cludes cur​rency in​con​vert​ibil​ity, cur​rency trans​fer re​-
stric​tions, con​tract frus​tra​tion and wrong​ful/un​just with​drawal of a guar​-
an​tee.

PRI cov​er​age can cover pro​ject stake​hold​ers (spon​sor or lender) against the
pro​ject com​pany's fail​ure or loss due to a breach of con​trac​tual oblig​a​tions
if the fail​ure or loss is caused by one of the de​fined po​lit​i​cal risk events
under the PRI. PRI can also cover non-ho​n​our​ing and breach of con​tract of
fi​nan​cial oblig​a​tions by a host gov​ern​ment or state-owned off​taker and as
such can serve as ad​di​tional credit en​hance​ment for the pro​ject.

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Political Risk Insurance Structure

PRI cov​er​age can be used to sup​ple​ments com​mit​ments pro​vided to a pro​-

ject com​pany by the host gov​ern​ment under an im​ple​men​ta​tion or gov​ern​-
ment sup​port agree​ment (or even the PPA it​self, if the off​taker is suf​fi​-
ciently cred​it​wor​thy). Any gov​ern​ment guar​an​tees would stand in front of
the in​sur​ance cover. For ex​am​ple, while the host gov​ern​ment would nor​-
mally pro​vide an un​der​tak​ing to en​sure the con​vert​ibil​ity of cur​rency
through​out the term of the pro​ject, in the event the host gov​ern​ment has
in​suf​fi​cient for​eign cur​rency re​serves to meet its con​ver​sion oblig​a​tions, a
PRI pol​icy which cov​ers cur​rency in​con​vert​ibil​ity can pro​vide a cover by
con​vert​ing the por​tion of the cur​rency that was not ser​viced by the gov​-
ern​ment.

PRI providers typ​i​cally sub​ro​gate to the rights of the in​vestors and lenders
cov​ered, and re​quire an as​sign​ment of the un​der​ly​ing rights. De​pend​ing on

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 POLITICAL RISK INSURANCE

the po​lit​i​cal risk in​sur​ance provider, and the type of cov​er​age being sought,
a counter in​dem​nity with the host gov​ern​ment may also be re​quired.

Considerations
Aside from de​ter​min​ing the length of time in​volved and the cost of seek​ing
PRI cover, there are many other prac​ti​cal con​sid​er​a​tions when an in​vestor
or lender seeks in​sur​ance cover. These in​clude:
• El​i​gi​bil​ity: Does the po​lit​i​cal risk cov​er​age being sought meet the in​-
surer’s un​der​writ​ing guide​lines, for ex​am​ple, the ge​o​graphic lo​ca​tion of
pro​ject, coun​try risk lim​its, en​vi​ron​men​tal and so​cial re​quire​ments, per​-
cep​tion of po​lit​i​cal and eco​nomic in​sta​bil​ity?
• Abil​ity to re​cover: An abil​ity to re​ceive pay​ment under a claim can de​pend
on con​tract lan​guage am​bi​gu​i​ties, ex​clu​sions and de​duc​tions to cov​er​-
age, gaps in cov​er​age, and/or sub​jec​tive de​ter​mi​na​tion of cause and ef​-
fect.
• Time​line/process for pay​ment of claims: Pay​ment of claims can be sub​ject
to wait​ing pe​ri​ods, re​quire an ex​haus​tion of reme​dies, or re​sort​ing to
in​ter​na​tional ar​bi​tra​tion rul​ings or an​other dis​pute res​o​lu​tion pro​ce​-
dures spec​i​fied under the agree​ments.
• Sal​vage and sub​ro​ga​tion: The clauses re​quire the pol​i​cy​holder to cede
own​er​ship of im​per​iled as​sets to the in​surer in the event of a total loss
as well as un​der​ly​ing rights to the pro​ject agree​ments. This fea​ture al​-
lows in​sur​ers to re​coup losses to the ex​tent of their abil​ity to sal​vage
value in the as​sets or sal​vage from the host gov​ern​ment di​rectly. The
abil​ity to trans​fer these rights may be com​pli​cated by ex​ist​ing se​cu​rity
that has been granted to the other fi​nanc​ing par​ties in the trans​ac​tion.
The par​ties may ad​dress these is​sues under a doc​u​ment known as a
Claims Co​op​er​a​tion Agree​ment.
• Pric​ing and Syn​di​ca​tion: Un​like DFI poli​cies, PRI cov​er​age is mar​ket-
priced and may allow for syn​di​ca​tion, en​abling greater lever​age of the
pol​icy.

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 THIRD PARTY CREDIT SUPPORT AND RISK MITIGATION

7.5. A/B Loan Syndication

In ad​di​tion to the prod​ucts de​scribed ear​lier in this sec​tion, there are other
prod​ucts pro​vided by MDBs, such as A/B Loan fa​cil​i​ties that can help catal​-
yse fi​nanc​ing from com​mer​cial banks or other pri​vate sec​tor lenders.

Under an A/B syn​di​cated loan, the MDB, as lender of record, ex​tends an

"A" loan to the pro​ject com​pany from its own re​sources and a "B" loan
which is funded (under a par​tic​i​pa​tion agree​ment) by com​mer​cial banks.
The MDB is the lender of record for both the A loan and the B loan. From
the pro​ject com​pany's per​spec​tive, this al​lows lend​ing to be mo​bilised
through a com​bi​na​tion of MDB and com​mer​cial lender funds within a sin​-
gle loan struc​ture.

The com​mer​cial lenders take com​mer​cial risk on re​pay​ment of the loan

under the terms of the par​tic​i​pa​tion agree​ment. How​ever, the fact that the
MDB is the lender of record brings a num​ber of ben​e​fits, which are fur​ther
de​scribed below.

A/B Syndicated Loan Structure

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What are the Advantages of an A/B Syndicated Loan?

Since the MDB is the lender of record, the B loan lenders will ben​e​fit from
the MDB's pre​ferred cred​i​tor sta​tus (with re​spect to cur​rency con​vert​ibil​ity
and trans​fer risk) as well as other ad​van​tages that may be en​joyed by the
MDB, such as ex​emp​tion from with​hold​ing and other taxes and du​ties.

The fact that the MDB is lender of record will also bring a wider "halo ef​-
fect" and help mit​i​gate com​mer​cial lenders' con​cerns with re​spect to more
gen​eral coun​try and po​lit​i​cal risks. The MDB is not giv​ing a guar​an​tee to
the com​mer​cial loan par​tic​i​pa​tion, but they will nonethe​less take com​fort
from the wider de​vel​op​men​tal re​la​tion​ship that the MDB has with the host
gov​ern​ment and the in​flu​ence that that can bring.

B-loan par​tic​i​pants may also be ex​empted from the manda​tory coun​try-

risk pro​vi​sion​ing re​quire​ments that reg​u​la​tory au​thor​i​ties may im​pose if
these banks lend di​rectly to pro​jects in host coun​tries.

These ben​e​fits should ul​ti​mately allow com​mer​cial lenders to price their

debt lower than if they were lend​ing di​rectly to the pro​ject com​pany.

Considerations
There are typ​i​cally re​stric​tions on el​i​gi​bil​ity for B-loan par​tic​i​pants:
• Fi​nan​cial in​sti​tu​tions can​not be in​cor​po​rated, nor can they have their
head of​fice, in the coun​try where the bor​rower is in​cor​po​rated. The B-
loan par​tic​i​pant can​not have an of​fice or branch that is res​i​dent in the
host coun​try.
• Fi​nan​cial in​sti​tu​tions can​not be an of​fi​cial agency such as an ECA or
other gov​ern​men​tal, quasi-gov​ern​men​tal or mul​ti​lat​eral de​vel​op​ment
bank.

149
 THIRD PARTY CREDIT SUPPORT AND RISK MITIGATION

7.6. Summary of Key Points

There are a range of third party guar​an​tee prod​ucts avail​able which can
cover re​pay​ment of debt di​rectly or sup​port pay​ments due to the pro​ject
com​pany from other pro​ject par​tic​i​pants.

A/B Loan struc​tures allow MDBs to mo​bilise com​mer​cial lenders and

widen the fi​nanc​ing re​sources avail​able to a pro​ject.

The ben​e​fits of third-party credit en​hance​ment to a pro​ject and to the var​i​-

ous stake​hold​ers can in​clude:
• widen​ing the fi​nanc​ing op​tions avail​able to the pro​ject com​pany by, for
ex​am​ple, mo​bil​is​ing the com​mer​cial lenders;
• re​duc​ing debt pric​ing; and
• ex​tend​ing the tenor of pro​ject debt.

Spon​sors and com​mer​cial lenders often value the gen​eral "halo ef​fect" that
some DFIs bring to a pro​ject in ad​di​tion to any di​rect credit en​hance​ment.

Gov​ern​ments will need to con​sider the ac​count​ing im​pact and coun​try al​-
lo​ca​tion im​pli​ca​tions of dif​fer​ent forms of guar​an​tee prod​uct, de​pend​ing
on the provider and con​di​tions of the prod​uct.

150
Appendix
Glossary
Online Resources
Acronyms

151
 APPENDIX

Glossary
A/B Loan prod​uct – see Sec​tion 7.4

Ac​counts Agree​ment – agree​ment set​ting forth the terms for the flow of
funds through a pro​ject com​pany’s ac​counts. See also Sec​tion 3.2.

African De​vel​op​ment Bank Group (AfDB) – a mul​ti​lat​eral de​vel​op​-

ment fi​nance in​sti​tu​tion es​tab​lished to con​tribute to the eco​nomic de​vel​-
op​ment and so​cial progress of African coun​tries. The AfDB was founded in
1964 and com​prises three en​ti​ties: the African De​vel​op​ment Bank, the
African De​vel​op​ment Fund (ADF) and the Nige​ria Trust Fund (NTF). The
ADF is the con​ces​sional win​dow of the AfDB Group. The NTF, es​tab​lished
by the Niger​ian gov​ern​ment is a self-sus​tain​ing re​volv​ing fund.

Ap​pro​pri​a​tion – in bud​getary terms means the set​ting aside of money for

a spe​cific pur​pose. Var​i​ous sources of gov​ern​ment fund​ing should be ap​-
pro​pri​ated each year for gov​ern​ment pro​grammes and this should be con​-
tained in a gov​ern​ment’s an​nual or pe​ri​odic bud​get. In busi​ness use, an ap​-
pro​pri​a​tion may also be known as a "cap​i​tal al​lo​ca​tion”.

Ar​bi​tra​tion – a dis​pute res​o​lu​tion mech​a​nism where the mat​ter in dis​-

pute is re​ferred for de​ter​mi​na​tion by an ar​bi​tral panel in ac​cor​dance with a
pre-agreed set of rules.

As​sign​ment – a legal term de​scrib​ing the act of trans​fer​ring the rights, but
not oblig​a​tions, of a party under an agree​ment to an​other party. The right
of a party to as​sign its rights under an agree​ment will be sub​jected to re​-
stric​tions and lim​i​ta​tions set out in the rel​e​vant agree​ment and may re​quire
the prior con​sent of other par​ties to the agree​ment.

Bal​ance Sheet Fi​nanc​ing – the fi​nanc​ing of a pro​ject which is pro​vided

in full by a spon​sor.

Bank​able – a pro​ject or con​tract is said to be “bank​able” if it com​prises a

level of risk al​lo​ca​tion which would be gen​er​ally ac​cept​able to lenders.

152
 GLOSSARY

Base​load Power or Ca​pac​ity – gen​er​at​ing ca​pac​ity within a na​tional or

re​gional grid net​work that the off​taker or grid op​er​a​tor in​tends to dis​patch
or utilise on a con​tin​u​ous basis.

Black-outs – a total re​duc​tion of power sup​ply to elec​tric​ity con​sumers.

Brown-outs – a par​tial re​duc​tion of power sup​ply to elec​tric​ity con​-

sumers.

Call Op​tion – the right of the off​taker (or host coun​try) to pur​chase the
power plant or its shares.

Ca​pac​ity Pay​ment - a pay​ment for ca​pac​ity by the off​taker which is based

on the abil​ity of the power plant to gen​er​ate a cer​tain amount. The pay​-
ment is de​signed to allow the pro​ducer to re​cover their fixed costs (cap​i​tal
costs and fixed op​er​at​ing costs) and agreed-upon prof​its. These charges are
paid so long as the power plant is made avail​able or deemed avail​able for
dis​patch, re​gard​less of whether the power plant is ac​tu​ally dis​patched.

Col​lat​eral - prop​erty, con​tract rights, or other as​sets in which a bor​rower

grants a se​cu​rity in​ter​est to a lender in order to se​cure the re​pay​ment of a
loan.

Com​mer​cial Op​er​a​tions Date or COD - a key mile​stone date de​fined in

the PPA when the power plant com​mences com​mer​cial op​er​a​tion, as es​-
tab​lished by the con​clu​sion of the per​for​mance tests and cer​ti​fied by an in​-
de​pen​dent en​gi​neer.

Com​mon Terms Agree​ment – agree​ment among the pro​ject com​pany

and the lenders that con​tains all the fi​nanc​ing terms com​mon to all the dif​-
fer​ent loan fa​cil​i​ties (for ex​am​ple, con​di​tions to fund​ing, fi​nan​cial
covenants, events of de​fault, rep​re​sen​ta​tions and other un​der​tak​ings). See
also Sec​tion 3.2.

Con​ces​sion - the right granted by the host gov​ern​ment to build and op​er​-
ate the power plant and sell elec​tric​ity in the host coun​try for a num​ber of

153
 APPENDIX

years. A con​ces​sion agree​ment is the agree​ment by which the con​ces​sion is

granted to the pro​ject com​pany. An im​ple​men​ta​tion agree​ment serves a
sim​i​lar pur​pose.

Con​di​tions Prece​dent - a set of con​di​tions that must be ful​filled be​fore a

con​tract or parts of it be​come ef​fec​tive.

Con​tin​gent Li​a​bil​ity - a li​a​bil​ity that has not yet ma​te​ri​alised but which
may ma​te​ri​alise in the fu​ture.

Cor​po​rate Fi​nance - used to dis​tin​guish Pro​ject Fi​nance (see below).

Cor​po​rate fi​nance im​plies that the lender has re​course to the share​hold​ers
of the rel​e​vant bor​rower and/or to as​sets over and above the asset being fi​-
nanced.

Cost-re​flec​tive Tar​iffs – tar​iffs charged to end con​sumers which re​flect

the true cost of gen​er​a​tion, trans​mis​sion, dis​tri​b​u​tion and sup​ply to end
con​sumers.

Credit En​hance​ment – the pro​vi​sion of guar​an​tees or other forms of

sup​port to en​hance a pay​ment oblig​a​tion.

Cure Pe​riod - the time pe​riod dur​ing which a de​fault​ing party has a
chance to cor​rect a breach which would oth​er​wise lead to an event of de​-
fault.

Cur​tail​ment – an in​struc​tion by the off​taker or grid op​er​a​tor to the

power pro​ducer of a non-dis​patch​able power plant to re​duce gen​er​a​tion.
This may be mo​ti​vated by end-user de​mand, the avail​abil​ity of al​ter​na​tive
gen​er​a​tion re​sources, trans​mis​sion net​work ca​pac​ity and/or grid sta​bil​ity.

Deemed Ca​pac​ity – the ca​pac​ity that a power plant would have been able
to make avail​able, but for the oc​cur​rence of an event or cir​cum​stance for
which the off​taker bears the risk.

Deemed En​ergy Pay​ments – pay​ments made with re​spect to deemed

154
 GLOSSARY

Deemed En​ergy Pay​ments – pay​ments made with re​spect to deemed

gen​er​a​tion.

Deemed Gen​er​a​tion/En​ergy – the elec​tric​ity that a power plant would

have been able to gen​er​ate, but for the oc​cur​rence of an event or cir​cum​-
stance for which the off​taker bears the risk.

De​liv​ery Point – the point to which a pro​ducer is re​spon​si​ble for de​liv​er​-

ing elec​tric​ity gen​er​ated by the power plant. The de​liv​ery point is typ​i​cally
on the high volt​age side of the step-up trans​form​ers. The elec​tric​ity that is
gen​er​ated by a power plant is mea​sured at the de​liv​ery point.

De​vel​oper - see Spon​sor.

De​vel​op​ment Fi​nance In​sti​tu​tions – fi​nan​cial in​sti​tu​tions with a man​-

date to fi​nance pro​jects that achieve de​vel​op​ment out​comes. They in​clude
MDBs. Ex​am​ples in​clude the World Bank, AfDB, EBRD, ADB, IDB, OPIC,
FMO, DEG, CDC, DBSA and Proparco.

Di​rect Agree​ments - con​tracts or agree​ments be​tween lenders and coun​-

ter​par​ties of the pro​ject com​pany (in​clud​ing the off​taker and, where rel​e​-
vant, the host gov​ern​ment), under which the rel​e​vant pro​ject coun​ter​party
ac​knowl​edge the se​cu​rity in​ter​ests granted by the pro​ject com​pany to the
lenders, and al​lows lenders the op​por​tu​nity to step in to rem​edy breaches
by the pro​ject com​pany. Di​rect Agree​ments may also be used to clar​-
ify/amend the un​der​ly​ing pro​ject con​tract.

Di​rect Loss - a loss aris​ing di​rectly as a re​sult of a de​fault​ing party's fail​ure

to per​form its oblig​a​tions under the agree​ment.

Dis​patch - an in​struc​tion by the grid sys​tem op​er​a​tor to the power plant

to pro​duce elec​tric​ity.

Dis​patch​able Plant - a power plant that is ca​pa​ble of re​spond​ing to the

in​struc​tions of the trans​mis​sion com​pany on de​mand to vary its out​put on
short no​tice. Plants that fall within this cat​e​gory in​clude coal-fired plants,

155
 APPENDIX

gas-fired plants, and re​new​able plants with a rel​a​tively con​stant or stor​able

source of en​ergy such as a hydro plant with a reser​voir and/or a bio​mass
plant.

Draw​down - in the con​text of a loan, means the dis​burse​ment of funds

from the lender to the bor​rower.

En​ergy charge rate – see En​ergy pay​ment.

En​ergy Pay​ment – a pay​ment for elec​tric​ity by the off​taker which is based

on the ac​tual amount of power gen​er​ated and dis​patched. The pay​ment is
de​signed to allow the pro​ducer to re​cover fuel costs and vari​able op​er​at​ing
costs.

En​gi​neer​ing, Pro​cure​ment and Con​struc​tion Con​tract or EPC Con​-

tract - one or more con​tracts to be en​tered into be​tween the EPC con​trac​-
tor and the pro​ject com​pany for the pur​pose of set​ting out terms and con​-
di​tions for the de​sign, en​gi​neer​ing, pro​cure​ment of ma​te​ri​als and equip​-
ment, the con​struc​tion and com​mis​sion​ing of the power plant.

En​vi​ron​men​tal re​me​di​a​tion – the ac​tion which needs to be taken to

rem​edy en​vi​ron​men​tal con​t​a​m​i​na​tion of a power plant site fol​low​ing ter​-
mi​na​tion of a PPA.

Eq​uity – money in​vested by the spon​sors in the pro​ject that is not bor​-
rowed by the pro​ject com​pany. The term "Eq​uity" may some​times be used
to in​clude share​holder sub​or​di​nated debt (which is fi​nance made avail​able
to the pro​ject com​pany by the spon​sors or share​hold​ers of the pro​ject com​-
pany, which is sub​or​di​nated to debt made avail​able by the lenders).

Es​crow Ac​count LC – see Sec​tion 6.6.

Event of De​fault – a de​fault that the par​ties to a con​tract agree is a ma​te​r​-

ial de​fault. The oc​cur​rence of an Event of De​fault usu​ally grants the non-
de​fault​ing party the right to ter​mi​nate the con​tract if such de​fault is not
cured within any ap​plic​a​ble cure pe​riod.

156
 GLOSSARY

Ex​port Credit Agen​cies – pub​lic agen​cies and en​ti​ties that pro​vide gov​-
ern​ment-backed loans, guar​an​tees and in​sur​ance to cor​po​ra​tions from their
home coun​try that seek to do busi​ness over​seas in de​vel​op​ing mar​kets.

Fa​cil​ity Agent – agent on be​half of any debt fa​cil​ity. See also Sec​tion 3.2.

Fea​si​bil​ity Study – a tech​ni​cal and fi​nan​cial study of the vi​a​bil​ity of the

pro​posed power pro​ject.

Fi​nan​cial Clos​ing (Fi​nan​cial close) – ei​ther (i) the ex​e​cu​tion of the Fi​-
nanc​ing Doc​u​ments, or (ii) the ex​e​cu​tion of the Fi​nanc​ing Doc​u​ments and
the sat​is​fac​tion of all of the con​di​tions for dis​burse​ment of the pro​ject
loans.

Fi​nan​cial In​vestor – a fi​nan​cial in​sti​tu​tion, fund or in​sur​ance com​pany

which in​vests in a power pro​ject.

Fi​nanc​ing Doc​u​ments - the set of con​tracts and agree​ments other than

the pro​ject doc​u​ments (in​clud​ing the Loan Agree​ments, Di​rect Agree​-
ments, and Se​cu​rity Agree​ments), that de​fine the rights and oblig​a​tions of
the lenders and the pro​ject com​pany in re​la​tion to the fi​nanc​ing of the
power plant.

Force Ma​jeure Event – an event be​yond the con​trol of the af​fected party
that pre​vents it from per​form​ing one or more of its oblig​a​tions under the
rel​e​vant con​tract. Events con​sti​tut​ing force ma​jeure are gen​er​ally fur​ther
clas​si​fied into Po​lit​i​cal Force Ma​jeure Events and Non-Po​lit​i​cal Force Ma​-
jeure Events, with dif​fer​ent fi​nan​cial and con​trac​tual con​se​quences to the
con​tract​ing par​ties. Nat​ural Force Ma​jeure falls within the lat​ter cat​e​gory.

Fuel Sup​plier - a sup​plier of fuel used to gen​er​ate elec​tric​ity.

Fuel Sup​ply Con​tract/ Agree​ment - the agree​ment be​tween the pro​ject

com​pany and the fuel sup​plier (in the case of a con​ven​tional PPA), or be​-
tween the off​taker and the fuel sup​plier (in the case of a tolling agree​ment

157
 APPENDIX

or en​ergy con​ver​sion agree​ment), under which the fuel sup​plier sup​plies

fuel to the pro​ject com​pany.

Gen​er​a​tor - see Seller.

Gov​ern​ment Con​ces​sion and Sup​port Agree​ment – agree​ment be​-

tween the host gov​ern​ment and the pro​ject com​pany, under which the
host gov​ern​ment agrees to cer​tain un​der​tak​ings with re​spect to the pro​ject.
This agree​ment typ​i​cally goes be​yond the cus​tom​ary pro​vi​sions of an Im​-
ple​men​ta​tion Agree​ment and may in​clude an ex​plicit guar​an​tee of the per​-
for​mance oblig​a​tions of a gov​ern​men​tal en​tity, such as an off​taker or fuel
sup​plier.

Grid - a sys​tem of high ten​sion ca​bles by which elec​tri​cal power is dis​trib​-

uted through​out a re​gion.

Hedg​ing in​stru​ments – In​stru​ments used by pro​ject stake​hold​ers to pro​-

tect against move​ments in cur​rency ex​change rates, in​ter​est rates and com​-
mod​ity price fluc​tu​a​tions.

Host Gov​ern​ment – the gov​ern​ment of the coun​try in which the power

plant is lo​cated.

Im​ple​men​ta​tion Agree​ment – agree​ment pro​vid​ing for di​rect con​trac​-

tual oblig​a​tions and un​der​tak​ings be​tween the host gov​ern​ment and the
pro​ject com​pany to sup​port the pro​ject, in​clud​ing, among other things, un​-
der​tak​ings from the host gov​ern​ment with re​spect to taxes and co​op​er​a​-
tion in ob​tain​ing nec​es​sary per​mits and ap​provals for the pro​ject and un​-
der​tak​ings by the pro​ject com​pany to com​ply with its con​trac​tual oblig​a​-
tions with its coun​ter​parts that are state-owned en​ti​ties and com​pli​ance
with other re​quire​ments.

In​de​pen​dent Power Pro​ducer - a pri​vately-owned pro​ducer of elec​tric​-

ity.

Ini​tial Pub​lic Of​fer​ing – First sale of eq​uity in​ter​est, or stock, by a pri​-

158
 GLOSSARY

Ini​tial Pub​lic Of​fer​ing – First sale of eq​uity in​ter​est, or stock, by a pri​-

vate com​pany to the pub​lic.

In​sol​vency - the in​abil​ity of an en​tity to pay its debts when or as they be​-
come due.

In​ter​con​nec​tion – the point at which the trans​mis​sion sys​tem and the

power plant in​ter​con​nect.

In​ter​con​nec​tion Agree​ment - an agree​ment be​tween the pro​ject com​-

pany and the trans​mis​sion sys​tem op​er​a​tor pro​vid​ing for the con​nect​ing of
the power plant to the trans​mis​sion sys​tem.

In​ter​cred​i​tor Agree​ment – agree​ment among the lender groups pro​vid​-

ing fi​nanc​ing to a pro​ject, or among the agents or other rep​re​sen​ta​tives on
be​half of each lender group. See also Sec​tion 3.2.

In​ter​nal Rate of Re​turn or IRR – the an​nu​alised ef​fec​tive com​pounded

rate of re​turn earned on an in​vest​ment over a pe​riod of time.

In​vestor – see Spon​sor.

Lenders - the providers of loan fi​nanc​ing to the pro​ject com​pany.

Let​ter of Com​fort – let​ter from a host gov​ern​ment whereby the host gov​-
ern​ment promises to fa​cil​i​tate a pro​ject by of​fer​ing cer​tain as​sur​ances to
the pro​ject de​vel​oper. See also Sec​tion 6.3.

Lim​ited Re​course Fi​nanc​ing – see non-re​course pro​ject fi​nanc​ing.

Liq​uid​ity – the avail​abil​ity of cash and cash equiv​a​lents to cover a party's

short-term fi​nan​cial oblig​a​tions.

Loan Agree​ment - cre​ates the com​mit​ment of the lender to make a loan

to the pro​ducer to fi​nance the power pro​ject, and the oblig​a​tions of the

159
 APPENDIX

pro​ducer/bor​rower to repay the loan with in​ter​est and to com​ply with var​-
i​ous covenants set forth in the loan agree​ment.

Merit order – de​scribes the order of pref​er​ence in which power plants

will be dis​patched by a trans​mis​sion sys​tem op​er​a​tor.

Mez​za​nine debt – fi​nance pro​vided by lenders which ranks below se​nior

debt and above sub​or​di​nated debt and eq​uity.

Mid-merit – a mid-merit power plant is one that sits be​tween base​load

and peak​ing power plants in the merit order.

Mono​line In​surer – an in​sur​ance com​pany that guar​an​tees the re​pay​-

ment of bonds.

Mul​ti​lat​eral De​vel​op​ment Banks - an in​sti​tu​tion, formed, owned and

con​trolled by its mem​ber coun​tries, that pro​vides fi​nanc​ing and ad​vi​sory
ser​vices for the pur​pose of de​vel​op​ment. Ex​am​ples in​clude the World
Bank (IBRD and IDA), AfDB, and MIGA.

Net Elec​tri​cal Out​put - the net elec​tri​cal en​ergy, typ​i​cally ex​pressed in

MWh, that is gen​er​ated by a power plant and de​liv​ered to the de​liv​ery
point, as mea​sured by the me​ter​ing sys​tem lo​cated at the de​liv​ery point.

Non-dis​patch​able Plant – a power plant that is not ca​pa​ble of re​spond​-

ing to in​struc​tions from a trans​mis​sion sys​tem op​er​a​tor to vary its out​put
due to the in​ter​mit​tent na​ture of the en​ergy re​source base being used such
as wind or solar.

Non-Po​lit​i​cal Force Ma​jeure Events - a force ma​jeure event that is not a

Po​lit​i​cal Force Ma​jeure Event.

Non-Re​course Fi​nanc​ing - fi​nanc​ing that will be re​paid solely the cash

flow pro​ceeds of a pro​ject struc​tured as a spe​cial-pur​pose ve​hi​cle. The
oblig​a​tions of the share​hold​ers in the spe​cial-pur​pose ve​hi​cle are usu​ally

160
 GLOSSARY

lim​ited to their oblig​a​tion to con​tribute cap​i​tal and, in some cases, to pro​-

vide other lim​ited and well-de​fined sup​port to the spe​cial-pur​pose ve​hi​cle.

Off​taker - the party to a PPA whose oblig​a​tion is to pur​chase the ca​pac​ity

made avail​able and the elec​tric​ity gen​er​ated by the power plant, sub​ject to
the terms and con​di​tions of the PPA. Also re​ferred to as the Buyer.

Op​er​at​ing and Main​te​nance Agree​ment or O&M Agree​ment - the

agree​ment be​tween the pro​ject com​pany and a plant fa​cil​i​ties op​er​a​tor
under which the op​er​a​tor op​er​ates and main​tains the power plant and as​-
so​ci​ated fa​cil​i​ties.

Par​tial Credit Guar​an​tee - see Sec​tion 7.2.

Par​tial Risk Guar​an​tee – see Sec​tion 7.2.

Pass Through – in re​la​tion to a cost, a mech​a​nism under which the pro​-

ducer passes such cost on to the off​taker by op​er​a​tion of the tar​iff.

Peak​ing – a peak​ing power plant is a plant which is only dis​patched to

meet peak elec​tric​ity de​mand.

Po​lit​i​cal Force Ma​jeure Event - a force ma​jeure event that is po​lit​i​cal in

na​ture. Typ​i​cally these would in​clude any act of war, con​flict, act of for​eign
enemy, block​ade, em​bargo, or rev​o​lu​tion, strikes of a na​tion​wide or po​lit​i​-
cally mo​ti​vated char​ac​ter, changes in law, and the re​vo​ca​tion or non-is​-
suance of con​ces​sions or other au​tho​riza​tions.

Po​lit​i​cal Risk In​sur​ance – see Sec​tion 7.4.

Power Africa – a U.S. gov​ern​ment-led ini​tia​tive, launched by Pres​i​dent

Obama in June 2013, com​prised of nu​mer​ous pub​lic and pri​vate sec​tor
part​ners work​ing to​gether to dou​ble ac​cess to elec​tric​ity in Sub-Sa​ha​ran
Africa by adding 30,000 MW of cleaner, more ef​fi​cient elec​tric​ity gen​er​a​-
tion and 60 mil​lion con​nec​tions in Sub-Sa​ha​ran Africa by 2030.

161
 APPENDIX

Power Pur​chase Agree​ment or PPA – a con​tract be​tween two par​ties,

one of which pro​duces or gen​er​ates power for sale (the seller/pro​ducer)
and one of which pur​chases power (the buyer/off​taker). This con​tract is
some​times re​ferred to as an "off​take" agree​ment.

Pro​ducer - see Seller.

Pro​ject bonds – debt in​stru​ments is​sued in the cap​i​tal mar​kets to fi​nance

or re​fi​nance a power pro​ject.

Pro​ject Com​pany – See Seller.

Pro​ject Doc​u​ments – the con​tracts or agree​ments re​quired for the con​-

struc​tion, op​er​a​tion and main​te​nance of the power plant. Typ​i​cally this
will in​clude the Power Pur​chase Agree​ment, the EPC Con​tract, Fuel Sup​-
ply Agree​ment, Op​er​a​tions and Main​te​nance Agree​ment, and the In​ter​-
con​nec​tion Agree​ment.

Pro​ject Fi​nance - see Non-Re​course Fi​nanc​ing.

Pro​ject Loan – a loan from one or more lenders to the pro​ject com​pany,
made for the pur​pose of fi​nanc​ing a power pro​ject.

Pub​lic Pri​vate Part​ner​ships - arrange​ments be​tween the pub​lic and pri​-

vate sec​tors whereby a ser​vice or piece of in​fra​struc​ture that is or​di​nar​ily
pro​vided by the pub​lic sec​tor is pro​vided by the pri​vate sec​tor, with clear
agree​ment on the al​lo​ca​tion of as​so​ci​ated risks and re​spon​si​bil​i​ties.

Put Op​tion – the right of the pro​ject com​pany to re​quire the off​taker (or
host coun​try) to pur​chase the power plant or its shares.

Quasi-sov​er​eign bond – see Sec​tion 3.3.

Reg​u​la​tor – com​pe​tent au​thor​ity of the host gov​ern​ment hav​ing the

statu​tory right to reg​u​late agen​cies and en​ti​ties par​tic​i​pat​ing in the sec​tor,
in​clud​ing the Pro​ject Com​pany.

162
 GLOSSARY

Re​im​burse​ment and Credit Agree​ment – see Sec​tion 7.3.

Re​source-based In​fra​struc​ture Fi​nanc​ing – grants rights to ex​tract

nat​ural re​sources in the host coun​try in ex​change for an agree​ment by the
holder of the ex​trac​tion rights to de​sign, con​struct, and im​ple​ment a pro​-
ject.

Se​cu​rity Agent – agent on be​half of any debt fa​cil​ity with re​spect to se​cu​-
rity and col​lat​eral mat​ters. See also Sec​tion 3.2.

Se​cu​rity Doc​u​ments – the doc​u​ments that grant the se​cu​rity in​ter​ests,

mort​gages, pledges and other se​cu​rity rights that se​cure the re​pay​ment of
the pro​ject loans in favour of the lenders.

Self-dis​patched – a power plant which de​liv​ers elec​tri​cal power di​rectly

into the grid with​out being dis​patched by a trans​mis​sion sys​tem op​er​a​tor.

Seller – the en​tity which is sell​ing power under the PPA. Also re​ferred to
as the Pro​ject Com​pany, Power Pro​ducer or Gen​er​a​tor.

Se​nior debt – fi​nance pro​vided by lenders which ranks ahead of mez​za​-

nine and sub​or​di​nated debt.

Share​hold​ers Agree​ment – or​gan​i​sa​tional agree​ment among the share​-

hold​ers to a pro​ject com​pany, es​tab​lish​ing the gov​er​nance struc​ture of the
pro​ject com​pany and the rights among the share​hold​ers.

Site (pro​ject) – the land upon which the power plant is lo​cated.

Sov​er​eign bond – debt in​stru​ments is​sued by host gov​ern​ments in the

cap​i​tal mar​kets.

Spe​cial-Pur​pose Ve​hi​cle – a cor​po​rate en​tity es​tab​lished specif​i​cally for

the pur​pose of pur​su​ing a spe​cific pro​ject and is pro​hib​ited from un​der​tak​-
ing any ac​tiv​ity be​yond the pro​ject in ques​tion. Often called the pro​ject
com​pany for the pur​poses of this hand​book.

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 APPENDIX

Spon​sor – a share​holder or other par​ties af​fil​i​ated with the share​hold​ers of

the pro​ject com​pany, also known as the In​vestor or De​vel​oper in this
hand​book.

Spot Mar​ket - in the con​text of the sup​ply of elec​tric​ity, the whole​sale

elec​tric​ity mar​ket into which the pro​ject com​pany can sell elec​tric​ity other
than under a long-term PPA. In the con​text of a fuel sup​ply arrange​ment,
the mar​ket from which the pro​ject com​pany can ac​quire fuel with​out en​-
ter​ing into long-term fuel pur​chase oblig​a​tions.

Standby Let​ter of Credit – see Sec​tion 7.3.

Step-in Rights – the rights granted to the lenders under a Di​rect Agree​-
ment to step-in and cure a de​fault by the pro​ject com​pany, under a pro​ject
agree​ment, be​fore the coun​ter​party to the pro​ject com​pany may take any
ac​tion to en​force the con​tract against the coun​ter​party or ter​mi​nate the
con​tract.

Stranded asset – a power plant which has no power pur​chase agree​ment

with an off​taker and no other means of mon​e​tiz​ing its gen​er​at​ing ca​pac​ity.

Sub-sov​er​eign bond – a debt in​stru​ment is​sued by a re​gion, province,

state, mu​nic​i​pal​ity or state owned en​ter​prise.

Take-or-Pay (Fuel) – in the con​text of a PPA, the oblig​a​tion of the off​-

taker to pay for an agreed quan​tity of fuel over a given pe​riod of time and
will be li​able to pay for this quan​tity re​gard​less of whether it ac​tu​ally ac​-
cepts de​liv​ery of the fuel.

Tenor – see Term.

Term – the pe​riod of time dur​ing which a con​tract will re​main in force,
un​less ter​mi​nated ear​lier by ei​ther party in ac​cor​dance with the terms and
con​di​tions of the con​tract. The term of a PPA is usu​ally ex​pressed to run
until a date falling a fixed num​ber of years after COD.

164
 GLOSSARY

Volts (volt​age) – a de​rived unit for elec​tri​cal po​ten​tial.

Wheel​ing – the trans​mis​sion of power by one or more third-party trans​-

mis​sion line op​er​a​tors be​tween a power pro​ducer and a buyer of elec​tri​cal
power.

World Bank - In​ter​na​tional Bank for Re​con​struc​tion and De​vel​op​ment

(IBRD) and In​ter​na​tional De​vel​op​ment As​so​ci​a​tion (IDA).

World Bank Group – col​lec​tively, the In​ter​na​tional Bank for Re​con​struc​-

tion and De​vel​op​ment (IBRD), the In​ter​na​tional De​vel​op​ment As​so​ci​a​tion
(IDA), the In​ter​na​tional Fi​nance Cor​po​ra​tion (IFC), the Mul​ti​lat​eral In​-
vest​ment Guar​an​tee Agency (MIGA), and the In​ter​na​tional Cen​tre for Set​-
tle​ment of In​vest​ment Dis​putes (ICSID).

Yield co – Hold​ing com​pany that a de​vel​oper/spon​sor may form, com​-

prised of its in​ter​est in a pro​ject com​pany or com​pa​nies that have reached
COD and are earn​ing rev​enues.

165
 APPENDIX

Online Resources
The fol​low​ing is a non-ex​haus​tive list of ad​di​tional on​line re​sources:

Understanding Power Purchase Agreements

• Understanding Power Purchase Agreement: http://go.usa.gov/FBzH

Country Risk Classifications

• Standard & Poor's Risk Ratings: http://www.spratings.com
• Moody's Country Risk Ratings: http://goo.gl/QVUG8n
• Fitch Ratings Sovereigns: http://goo.gl/ymFQIV
• OECD Country Risk Classification: http://goo.gl/vEKPuY

Environment and Social

• African Development Bank's Integrated Safeguard System:
http://goo.gl/hWTO5p
• Equator Principles: http://www.equator-principles.com
• IFC Environmental and Social Performance Standards:
http://goo.gl/pNaCOv

Debt Sustainability
• Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014 (IMF):
http://goo.gl/iuxirn
• IMF Debt Sustainability Analysis: http://goo.gl/3eCSGz
• Public Sector Debt Statistics Guide (TFFS): http://goo.gl/eDm693
• Quarterly External Debt Statistics (World Bank): http://goo.gl/RhYYp0
• World Bank-IMF Debt Sustainability Framework: http://goo.gl/nsLcEa

Development Finance Institutions

166
 ONLINE RESOURCES

Development Finance Institutions

• Africa Finance Corporation: http://www.africafc.org
• African Development Bank Group: http://www.afdb.org
• Agence française de développement: http://goo.gl/c8wNXY
• Asian Development Bank: http://www.adb.org
• Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC):
http://www.cdcgroup.com
• DEG German Investment Company: https://goo.gl/YG0QvH
• Development Bank of Southern Africa: http://www.dbsa.org
• European Bank for Reconstruction and Development:
http://www.ebrd.com
• European Investment Bank: http://www.eib.org
• FMO Netherlands Development Finance Company:
https://www.fmo.nl
• International Finance Corporation: http://www.ifc.org
• Islamic Development Bank: http://www.isdb.org
• KfW Entwicklungsbank: http://goo.gl/gUuUzD
• Proparco Investment and Promotions Company for Economic
Cooperation: http://www.proparco.fr
• Overseas Private Investment Corporation: http://www.opic.gov
• Swedish International Development Corporation (SIDA):
http://www.sida.se/English/
• UK Department for International Development: https://goo.gl/yTqt8R
• World Bank Group: http://www.worldbank.org

Export Credit Agencies

167
 APPENDIX

Export Credit Agencies

• OECD List of ECAs: http://www.oecd.org/trade/exportcredits/eca.htm
• CESCE (Spain): http://inglaterra.cesce.es
• COFACE (France): http://www.coface.com
• Delcrede – Ducroire (Belgium): http://www.delcredereducroire.be/en/
• EDC (Canada): http://www.edc.ca
• EKF (Denmark): http://goo.gl/ATUH5K
• ExIm (USA): http://www.exim.gov
• FEC (Finland): http://www.finnvera.fi/eng
• Hermes (Germany): http://www.eulerhermes.com
• JBIC (Japan): http://www.jbic.go.jp/en
• KEXIM (Korea): http://goo.gl/sVWZrB
• NEXI (Japan): http://nexi.go.jp/en
• SACE (Italy): http://www.sace.it/en
• UK Export Finance (United Kingdom):
http://www.ukexportfinance.gov.uk

Guarantees
• African Development Bank: Partial Risk Guarantees:
http://goo.gl/kRVCFl
• World Bank: Guarantees: http://goo.gl/RXm2Tn

Negotiation Support
• African Legal Support Facility: http://goo.gl/hux9Va
• Host Government Negotiation Support Portal:
http://www.negotiationsupport.org

Political Risk Insurance

168
 ONLINE RESOURCES

Political Risk Insurance

• Africa Trade Insurance Political Risk Insurance: http://goo.gl/ptnyoA
• MIGA Political Risk Insurance: http://goo.gl/8rBvwe
• OPIC Political Risk Insurance: http://goo.gl/cl1MWr

Power Sector Guides

• Africa Power Guide: http://www.africapowerguide.com
• Geothermal Handbook: Planning and Financing Power Generation by
World Bank: http://goo.gl/Ftms70
• IEA Wind Power Technology Roadmap: http://goo.gl/5uaStk
• Important Features of Bankable Power Purchase Agreements by OPIC:
http://goo.gl/fBRXys
• Power Africa: http://www.usaid.gov/powerafrica
• World Energy Outlook: http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org

Procurement
• African Development Bank Procurement Guidelines:
http://goo.gl/ZegcL9
• EIB Procurement Guidelines: http://goo.gl/GXd0U3
• South Africa's Renewable Energy IPP Procurement Program: Success
Factors and Lessons: http://goo.gl/1YnSGy
• World Bank Procurement Guidelines: http://goo.gl/cT3X47

Project Finance
• Harvard Business School Project Finance Portal: http://goo.gl/HQufjo
• Project Finance Key Concepts (PPPIRC): http://goo.gl/xlTpFN

Public Private Partnerships

169
 APPENDIX

Public Private Partnerships

• Infrastructure Consortium for Africa: http://www.icafrica.org
• Unsolicited Proposals – An Exception to Public Initiation of
Infrastructure PPPs: http://goo.gl/hXJgFZ
• World Bank Public Private Partnership in Infrastructure Resource
Center: http://www.worldbank.org/pppirc

Syndicated Loans
• B Loan Structure and Benefits (IFC): http://goo.gl/ep4BzO
• Universal Recognition of B Loan Structure (IFC):
http://goo.gl/tFN80U

Uniform Legal Provisions

• ISP 98 – http://goo.gl/tSBG63
• TSAO 4878 – https://t.co/bVRRfSozLi
• UCP 600 – http://goo.gl/QNp1SX

170
 APPENDIX

Acronyms
ADB – African Development Bank

ADF – African Development Fund

AfDB – African Development Bank Group

CDC – Commonwealth Development Corporation

COD – Commercial Operations Date

DBSA – Development Bank of Southern Africa

DEG – Deutsche Investitions und Entwicklungsgesellschaft, German

Investment Corporation

DFI – Development Finance Institution

DSA – Debt Sustainability Analysis

ECA – Export Credit Agency

EIB – European Investment Bank

EPC – Engineering, Procurement and Construction

FMO – Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor

Ontwikkelingslanden N.V, Netherlands Development Finance Company

IAS – International Accounting Standards

IBRD – International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

ICSID – International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes

IDA – International Development Association

IFC – International Finance Corporation

171
 ACRONYMS

IMF – International Monetary Fund

ISP – International Standby Practices

IPP – Independent Power Producer

IPO – Initial Public Offering

IPSAS – Independent Public Sector Accounting Standards

IRR – Internal Rate of Return

LIBOR – London Interbank Offered Rate

LC – Letter of Credit

MDB – Multilateral Development Bank

MIGA – Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency

MLA – Mandated Lead Arranger

KWh – Kilowatt Hour

MWh – Megawatt Hour

O&M – Operations and Maintenance

OPIC – Overseas Private Investment Corporation

PCOA – Put and Call Option Agreement

PCG – Partial Credit Guarantee

PPA – Power Purchase Agreement

PPP – Public-Private Partnership

PRI – Partial Risk Insurance

172
 APPENDIX

PRG – Partial Risk Guarantee

PPA – Power Purchase Agreement

PSD – Public Sector Debt

RCA – Reimbursement and Credit Agreement

SBLC – Standby Letter of Credit

UCP – Uniform Customs and Practice

WBG – World Bank Group

173
Funded By

Developed By