Cover Story

• US shale gas here to stay

  The surge in US shale gas production presents huge opportunities for power and midstream gas project financings. But production and environmental costs are not fully understood. By Edward Russell. [more]

Features

• Fund management and overseas drive John Laing

  John Laing’s bread and butter has been in the UK social infrastructure and transport sectors, but it is now looking abroad much more intensively. Gary Lucas, director for international business development, talks to Catherine McGuirk [more]

• From major to miner

  Multilaterals and ECAs are the lifeblood for small mining projects in the sub-Saharan region. But debt is still costly, terms vary and not all are willing to take African risk. By Sarah Rundell. [more]

• Off the rails

  The volume of financings for European high-speed rail projects shows the asset class has arrived. But financing structures have yet to reach full maturity. By Catherine McGuirk [more]

• Flanders nightmare

  Despite – or perhaps because of – its precarious constitutional equilibrium, Belgium has been a fount of innovation in PPP. But just as the market begins to experience some stability, national politics threatens to intervene. By Antony Collins. [more]

• Infra refinancings find an open window

  Financial infrastructure investors have launched a series of refinancings in recent weeks, as mini-perm deals that closed before the crunch come due. Low interest rates and a surge in high-yield interest has compensated for banks’ cautious approach to leverage. By Robin Sayles. [more]

Deals Analysis

• Norte II: Termination innovation

  Korea Electric Power (Kepco), Samsung C&T and Techint closed the $395 million financing for the 433MW Norte II independent power project in Mexico on 11 March [more]

• BTP Santos: B sharper

  APM Terminals and Terminal Investments signed a $679 million debt package for their greenfield Brasil Terminal Portuario (BTP) project on 17 March. [more]

• Jurong Aromatics: Targeted template

  A ten-strong group of commercial lenders led by ING Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland signed the $1.557 billion debt finan­cing for the Jurong Aromatics project on 13 April [more]

• Enerjisa 2: Project pool

  The Enerjisa stage 2 Eu700 million ($975 million) 12-year project financing is back­ed by revenue streams from projects that are already cash generating from the stage 1 financing in 2008 [more]

• E.ON Rete: Consolidation continues

  F2i and AXA Private Equity’s acquisition financing for E.ON’s Rete Gas network in northern Italy closed on 7 April [more]

• Ivanpah: First DoE guaranteed financing for solar towers

  BrightSource Energy, NRG Energy and Google closed the $1.6 billion debt finan­c­ing for the $2.2 billion Ivanpah concentrating solar power project on 11 April. [more]

People & Places

• People & Places

  * The mayor-elect of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, has named Lois Scott, founder and president of PPP advisory firm Scott Balice Strategies, to be the chief finan­cial officer of the City of Chic­ago. Scott established a franchise advising US municipalities on con­cessions for parking and ... [more]

News Analysis

• Will Basel III spur ECAs to be more covered bond-friendly?

  Of all the export credit agencies only US Ex-Im and Germany’s Hermes provide commercial banks with a readily available means of using their agency-covered loans as assets in covered bond programmes. [more]

• Delay hits new Italian PV tariffs

  Italy’s solar industry is in limbo after its committee of the regions refused to consent to the ministry for economic development’s draft of Italy’s New Energy Law 4 (Conto Energia 4). [more]