Project Financing
Projects rarely fail to raise because the returns are poor. They fail because the risk was presented as something to be reassured about rather than something to be allocated.
Making the project legible to capital
Investors decline projects they cannot assess as quickly as they decline projects that are weak. In frontier and post-conflict markets the assessment problem dominates: the counterparty is unfamiliar, the legal position is hard to verify remotely, and the sponsor's own numbers arrive without an audit trail. We rebuild the package so that every material claim can be traced to a document a stranger can check.
That work is often the difference between a project that circulates for two years and one that reaches committee.
Allocating risk instead of arguing about it
Every project carries currency risk, offtake risk, construction risk, regulatory risk and political risk. The question is never whether they exist. It is which party is best placed to carry each one and what they are paid for doing so. We write the risk allocation explicitly into the structure and price it, rather than leaving it to be discovered during negotiation.
A sponsor who arrives with a clear view of which risks they will retain is a more credible counterparty than one who insists the risks are overstated.
Finding the right investor rather than any investor
Capital is not fungible in practice. Development finance institutions, sovereign funds, strategic industrial investors, regional family offices and infrastructure funds all want different things and tolerate different risks. Matching a project to the wrong pool wastes months and leaves a trail of declines that later investors notice.
We shortlist against mandate, ticket size, geographic appetite, required control and realistic timeline, and we tell clients when the honest answer is that the project is not currently financeable in the form it takes.
Preparing for diligence before diligence starts
The diligence process is where poorly prepared projects lose their valuation. We run the exercise internally first: title and permitting, environmental and social standards, tax position, related-party exposure, sanctions screening on every counterparty, and the sponsor's own governance. Problems found early are negotiating positions. The same problems found by an investor are discounts.
Signals this is the right work
You have a viable project and a term sheet that keeps not arriving. Investors ask the same three questions each time and you answer them differently. Your financial model has no stated assumptions. You are being offered capital on terms you suspect are expensive but cannot benchmark.
What you get
- An investor-ready package where every material claim traces to a verifiable document
- An explicit risk allocation matrix with each risk priced and assigned
- A shortlist matched on mandate, ticket size, control appetite and realistic timeline
- A pre-diligence review covering title, permitting, ESG, tax, related parties and sanctions
- A funding timetable with decision gates rather than hopes
Common questions
Do you raise the capital yourselves?
We are advisers, not placement agents, and we are not a licensed broker-dealer. We prepare the project, identify and approach appropriate investors, and support negotiation. Regulated placement is handled by regulated parties.
What size of project do you work on?
Typically between fifteen million and four hundred million US dollars. Below that range the advisory cost is hard to justify against the raise.
Will you tell us if the project is not financeable?
Yes, and reasonably early. A project that is not financeable in its current form can often be restructured into one that is, but that conversation only helps if it happens before eighteen months of investor approaches have burned the market.
Related work
Repricing Political Risk into the Plan →Why Africa Becomes the Key Growth Market Before 2050 →Discuss a mandate
If this describes the problem you are holding, a short conversation will establish quickly whether we are the right people for it.
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