This month the Spotlight falls on project finance. This is finance raised for a specific project where the lenders have little or no recourse to the project’s shareholders if the economics of the project deteriorate. In the UK, project finance is vital to the government’s drive to modernise public services. It is used to inject private sector expertise into the procurement and management of new roads, hospitals, schools and other assets used by the public, a process known formerly as the Private Finance Initiative or (PFI) and latterly as Public Private Partnerships (PPP).
