Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Third Edition
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Preface to the First Edition
- PART ONE AN INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT FINANCE
- CHAPTER ONE AN INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT FINANCE
- PART TWO RISK IDENTIFICATION, ALLOCATION, AND MITIGATION
- PART THREE PROJECT FINANCE STRUCTURES
- PART FOUR TECHNICAL, POLITICAL, AND ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY
- PART FIVE PROJECT FINANCE DOCUMENTATION
- PART SIX CREDIT ENHANCEMENT
- PART SEVEN DEBT AND EQUITY FINANCING
- PART EIGHT COLLATERAL
- PART NINE PROJECT SPONSOR AND INVESTOR AGREEMENTS
- PART TEN SPECIAL TOPICS IN PROJECT FINANCE
- Appendix A A Checklist of Due Diligence Considerations for a Project Financing
- Appendix B UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Privately Financed Infrastructure Projects
- Project Finance Terms, Abbreviations, and Acronyms
- Select Bibliography
- Index
CHAPTER ONE - AN INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT FINANCE
from PART ONE - AN INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT FINANCE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Third Edition
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Preface to the First Edition
- PART ONE AN INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT FINANCE
- CHAPTER ONE AN INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT FINANCE
- PART TWO RISK IDENTIFICATION, ALLOCATION, AND MITIGATION
- PART THREE PROJECT FINANCE STRUCTURES
- PART FOUR TECHNICAL, POLITICAL, AND ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY
- PART FIVE PROJECT FINANCE DOCUMENTATION
- PART SIX CREDIT ENHANCEMENT
- PART SEVEN DEBT AND EQUITY FINANCING
- PART EIGHT COLLATERAL
- PART NINE PROJECT SPONSOR AND INVESTOR AGREEMENTS
- PART TEN SPECIAL TOPICS IN PROJECT FINANCE
- Appendix A A Checklist of Due Diligence Considerations for a Project Financing
- Appendix B UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Privately Financed Infrastructure Projects
- Project Finance Terms, Abbreviations, and Acronyms
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
DEFINITION OF PROJECT FINANCE
The term project finance is generally used to refer to a nonrecourse or limited recourse financing structure in which debt, equity, and credit enhancement are combined for the construction and operation, or the refinancing, of a particular facility in a capital-intensive industry, in which lenders base credit appraisals on the projected revenues from the operation of the facility, rather than the general assets or the credit of the sponsor of the facility, and rely on the assets of the facility, including any revenue-producing contracts and other cash flow generated by the facility, as collateral for the debt.
In a project financing, therefore, the debt terms are not based on the sponsor's credit support or on the value of the physical assets of the project. Rather, project performance, both technical and economic, is the nucleus of project finance.
CONFUSION OF TERMS
The term project finance is often misused, owing to a general misunderstanding of the term. In some circles, it refers to raising funds to pay the costs of a project – any project. In others, the term is used to describe a hopeless financial situation remediable only with extreme financing options. The emerging meaning for the term is the definition above.
The term project finance does not necessarily imply that the underlying debt is nonrecourse to the project sponsor. As the definition indicates, project finance debt can be nonrecourse or limited recourse.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Law and Business of International Project FinanceA Resource for Governments, Sponsors, Lawyers, and Project Participants, pp. 3 - 24Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
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