June 3rd, 2014Athens public meeting - Presentation on Infrastructure financing

Vicky D. Kefalas, MBAHead, Investments & Development ProjectsConsolidated Contractors Company (CCC)

More & Better Infrastructure

More funding, renewed approach

Government commitment

Collaboration between policymakers, financiers, private investors

Perspective & Experience

Working on the private developer end

Bidding and raising finance for PPPs

Public Private Partnerships

Expensive funding but a good model

KEY CHALLENGES - PRIVATE SECTOR FUNDING

- High upfront capital requirements

- large outflow, average construction term 2-4 yrs

- Long term horizon of the projects

-20-30 yrs, may not align with investor terms, loan tenor

-need for hospitable political & regulatory environment

- Complex risk profile

-country & project

-interdependencies with adjoining / related projects

- Recovery and return expectations of the private sector investors

– seek stable, high-yield returns

IMPROVED COOPERATION BETWEEN MAIN STAKEHOLDERS OF INFRA PROJECTS

-Key Stakeholders: developers, financiers, local governments, MDBs, DFIs, ECAs

-Challenging economic and market conditions :

-Developing countries-EU countries under austerity measures, deficit reductions-Banks under new regulations , repairing their balance sheets

-Enabling & Inclusive infrastructure:

-Limited ability of people to pay -More non -recoverable funding to ensure social acceptance and wide use

-Standardized transaction structure and risk allocation:

-UK has this, but not EUROPE and many parts of the world-A framework for project tendering and approval with standard processes and contracts

CLOSING THE “KNOWLEDGE GAP”

Better cooperation between relevant international bodies and local governments

Improve knowledge, skills and awareness of tendering authorities

-Training and reference tools:

- UN International PPP Center of Excellence and TOS s

- WORLD BANK’s “PPP in Infrastructure Resource Center”

-Increase the awareness of countries, ministries & staff

More transparency and accountability across countries

-Share information on management, operational performance & risks

-Establishing common disclosure standards

-Help learn which models work best

ATTRACTING INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS

A substantial pool of savings , could be deployed in the infrastructure sector

Good match for the investment horizons & risk appetites of pension funds and SWFs

Mostly stable & predictable cash flows over the long term

Proactively finding the right incentives - support, regulation adjustments to coax these investors

Critical in attracting funding and a relatively inexpensive way of mitigating risk

FINANCING INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS – CONCLUSIONS & WAY FORWARD

-A serious challenge for governments & private investors

-Government commitment

-Both public and private sources of financing are critical

-Working openly together , understand challenges

-Find transformative policies and mechanisms to fund infrastructure

“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together” - African proverb