Project Financing
Advisory, structuring and coordination of project-financing transactions, aligned with underlying project economics and the discipline expected by institutional lenders and equity partners.
Our approach.
We advise sponsors, developers and corporate groups on project-financing mandates where the transaction rests on the projected cash flows of an identifiable project as distinct from the general credit of the sponsor. Our role is to translate the underlying project economics into a bankable capital structure, an enforceable security package and a stakeholder architecture that participating lenders and equity partners can rely on through construction, ramp-up and operation.
Project financing typically applies to infrastructure, real-estate development, energy, industrial and technology projects whose cash flows are contractual, measurable and separable from the broader activities of the sponsor. We approach each mandate by first isolating those cash flows, then designing the capital stack, risk allocation and documentation architecture around them.
Every project-financing mandate requires an early, honest view of bankability. Sponsors, lenders and equity partners each measure the project against different disciplines — technical, contractual, financial and jurisdictional — and the transaction is only ready to move forward when those disciplines converge on a coherent picture. We build that picture with the sponsor before the process opens.
Our work covers the full arc of a project-financing preparation: sources-and-uses discipline, financial model construction and stress-testing, risk-allocation matrix across construction, operational and market risk, security package design, and coordination of potential equity and debt participants around a common documentation calendar.
- Project sponsors and developers with an identifiable project perimeter.
- Corporate groups and industrial operators pursuing dedicated capital envelopes for a single project.
- Family offices and asset owners contributing equity or subordinated capital alongside institutional lenders.
- Eligible institutional lenders, private-debt funds and equity partners assessing project exposures.
- Greenfield development
A sponsor is preparing a new-build project with contractual counterparties in place and requires a coordinated capital structure across construction and operation phases.
- Brownfield expansion or refinancing
An operational project is scaling or approaching a refinancing window and its capital stack is being redesigned around observed cash flows.
- Multi-jurisdictional projects
The project spans several jurisdictions and requires coordinated legal, tax and lender workstreams before any process launch.
- Scale
- Mid-market European project financings, including real estate, infrastructure and industrial projects.
- Timing
- Typically several months from mandate to closing, depending on complexity and counterparties.
- Geography
- Continental European corridors with recurring activity across France, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Monaco; selective UK, MENA and transatlantic exposure.
- Capital-stack design across equity, senior debt, mezzanine and subordinated layers.
- Sources-and-uses table and bankable financial model.
- Risk allocation across construction, operational, market and jurisdictional risk.
- Security package, inter-creditor framework and covenant grid.
- Coordination of due-diligence workstreams and vendor experts.
- Investor and lender engagement, documentation, conditions precedent and closing.
- Typical engagement domains: infrastructure, real-estate development, energy and renewables, industrial and technology projects with identifiable contractual cash flows.
- 01Framing
We map the project perimeter, contractual counterparties, cash-flow profile and financing envelope, and confirm the target audience of lenders and equity partners.
- 02Structuring
We design the capital stack, the security architecture, the inter-creditor logic and the documentation calendar with the sponsor and qualified legal counsel.
- 03Engagement
We approach the relevant institutional lenders, private-debt funds and equity partners under confidentiality and coordinate their diligence and structuring feedback.
- 04Documentation
We coordinate term sheets, credit approvals, definitive documentation and conditions precedent across all workstreams.
- 05Closing
We coordinate signing, satisfaction of conditions precedent, initial drawdown and the handover to the sponsor’s finance function.
- Bankable structure
The transaction is built to survive institutional credit review, and to be presented with conviction.
- Coherent risk allocation
Each risk is allocated to the counterparty best placed to bear it, with clear contractual language.
- Coordinated workstreams
Legal, tax, technical and financial workstreams advance on a single calendar owned by the mandate lead.
- Legal
Qualified external counsel drafts and negotiates project agreements, security documents and finance documentation.
- Tax
Qualified tax advisers confirm the treatment of flows, deductibility and jurisdictional structuring.
- Technical
Independent engineers and technical advisers validate feasibility, construction and operational assumptions.
- Financial modelling
The financial model is built, audited where required and stress-tested against lender sensitivities.
- Institutional discipline from day one
The transaction is prepared to the standard expected by institutional credit committees and delivered in that condition from the outset.
- Single mandate lead
One senior team owns the sponsor relationship, the lender dialogue and the closing calendar.
- Cross-border coordination
Multi-jurisdictional projects benefit from our habit of aligning legal, tax and lender workstreams across borders.
- Sponsors with a defined project, permits path and identified counterparties.
- Projects with a clear collateral base and structured cash-flow logic.
- Cross-border operations calling for coordinated legal and financial engineering.
- Concept-stage projects without feasibility work.
- Requests for direct lending from CGPH Banque d’affaires’ own balance sheet.
- Projects unable to sustain institutional documentation and reporting.
- Terms, security, availability and drawdown mechanics are set by the definitive transaction documentation and the participating lenders.
- CGPH Banque d’affaires acts as adviser, structurer and process coordinator; the credit itself is provided by the identified banks, funds and licensed lenders acting within their regulated capacity.
- When does project financing become the right structure?
- It becomes appropriate when the project’s cash flows are identifiable, contractual and separable from the sponsor, and when the sponsor is prepared to submit the project to institutional-grade due diligence.
- Who provides the financing?
- CGPH Banque d’affaires acts as adviser, structurer and process coordinator. The financing is provided by the identified banks, private-debt funds and equity partners engaged for the mandate.
- How is bankability assessed?
- Bankability rests on the coherence between project cash flows, risk allocation, security package and sponsor discipline. We test each of these before opening the lender process.
- How long does a project-financing preparation take?
- The calendar depends on the complexity of the project and of the counterparties; we set it explicitly with the sponsor at the framing stage.