Project Finance & Capital Markets Latin America 2020 - Virtual Conference

What is the status of infrastructure projects across Latin America? Are they honouring their PPA contracts? How have sponsors’ investment criteria (and priorities) changed with COVID-19?

• Project delays vs. potential refinancing: What are investors’ biggest concerns when considering an investment post-pandemic?
• Infrastructure vs. renewable energy vs. oil & gas, large vs. smaller project schemes: What are the commercial opportunities for sponsors scanning investments in Latin America?
• Project bonds and private placements: How effectively can these instruments be used to fund different sizes or stages of projects?
• How can projects be sold to institutional investors? Can projects without a rating attract sponsorship from institutional investors?

Bank’s perspective on committing to projects: What has changed in the COVID- era? What are banks thinking from a lending perspective?

• Assessing market optimism and appetite for new financing: Where do banks see opportunities for growth in the next 6-12 months?
• Does the trend for refinancing in the loan market (versus the bond market) look set to continue? How has this changed banks’ flexibility to lend?
• What impact has price compression, increased tenors and liquidity had on banks’ willingness to lend to projects and how has this market shift impacted their ROI?
• To what extent can banks lend competitively on bigger ticketed deals in this new environment?

How to reactivate USD investment into Colombia’s peso-denominated 5G infrastructure projects

• Managing local currency revenues and USD funding needs: How does market capacity, duration, FX hedging costs affect deal structure?
• How do hedging costs and ability to reconcile currency affect the diversity of investors available to Colombia?
• Bank funding vs. multilateral vs. capital markets: Which is the best avenue to boost liquidity and reignite investor appetite?
• How close is the government to reaching full lending capacity? What are the options available to bridge a potential funding gap?

What are the fiscal benefits to incorporate ESG into conventional (non-renewable, social or environmental) projects? What criteria are investors using to rate, validate and invest into green and sustainable projects?

• How does the spectrum of green finance criteria vary (by sector and/or country) across the region?
• What methodologies are investors using to assess whether or not to invest in sustainable projects?
• Importance of robust governance structures and achievable sustainability metrics: How to encourage corporates and developers to meet investors’ criteria
• Social bonds to finance social infrastructure: How are ESG metrics being incorporated into healthcare infrastructure projects
• Access to competitive pricing and favourable tenors: Do the benefits of going green outweigh the additional work required?
• How do traditionally brown industries like oil & gas start thinking about more sustainable financing structures? What (if any) are the fiscal benefits for them?

Cliff risk and maintaining ratings: How are sponsors, banks and investors approaching project risk in the COVID-era?

• From IG project to sub-IG: How much can “cliff risk” impact funding of a project when there is potential for it to be downgraded from BBB- to BB+?
• With limited access to the off-taker, and shorter tenors, do smaller projects carry a higher risk?
• How is a withdrawal of project insurers impacting project loan pricing and terms?

Where can Brazil’s project sponsors fund themselves while the infrastructure debentures market hibernates?

• Who are the new players coming to market with long-term financing structures and how are they looking to be involved?
• Private credit as an alternative source of funding: How is the private credit market developing in Brazil? Who can access it?
• How is the evolving role of BNDES impacting the debenture market?
• Securitisation as a safe haven for investment: Will the new securitisation regulation encourage sponsors to use CRI instruments as a funding option?

From Structures to Services: The Path to Better Infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean

*IN SPANISH* Southern Cone Infrastructure and PPP: How are governments looking to increase FDI into their countries’ renewable energy and infrastructure requirements?

• PPPs, project bonds, structured finance: How are different governments planning to fund their energy and infrastructure needs?
• How can governments repackage offtaker agreements to make them more attractive to international investors and developers?
• What other avenues, apart from multilaterals are on the table for financing projects to a short deadline?