ABN Amro
ABN Amro has worked on some of the largest project management deals worldwide – the geographic spread of its business is truly impressive. In the Americas, it was mandated by Petrobras as financial adviser on its groundbreaking $1bn Urucu LNG project to utilise the gas reserves located in the Amazon Basin. In Australia, it is working on the Stanwell Magnesium Project, which is the world’s first project-specific debt and equity raising, and among the challenges of its debt structure is the blending of various senior and subordinated debt issues. And in Indonesia, ABN was part of Asia’s largest IPP project finance restructuring, for PT Paiton Energy, an innovative restructuring that helped to restore confidence in the country.
The bank believes it is the embedding of project finance within its integrated financial markets business that gives it an edge over competitors. Richard Burrett, global head of project finance, says: “The creation of the new financial markets business within ABN Amro embeds us in a debt markets platform that can deliver bespoke solutions to our clients across a wide product range.”
ABN was also one of the lead arrangers for the financing of a new gas turbine power project in Turkey, for Tractebel, which was co-sponsoring the project in conjunction with Mimag. The $489m deal included equity bridge financing costs, of which $366.3m represents limited-recourse debt financing. ABN has also executed a pro-rata share of the swaps business to hedge the project’s interest rate exposure and has been appointed MIGA facility agent.
“Our global franchise and reach as an organisation continues to deliver us strong deal flow and our ability to act as a financial adviser and arranger on some of the most complex and challenging transactions – particularly in the emerging markets – sets us apart from many of our competitors,” says Mr Burrett.
