Specialist Financing Expertise

• Expertise in Asset-Backed Oil & Gas Financing, including Reserve Based- Lending, Field Development Financing and Asset Optimization.
• Production-based funding, including ring-fenced tripartite off-take agreements; with waterfall cash flow architecture.
• Oil & Gas Pipeline financing, including non-recourse financing based on GTAs (Gas Transmission Agreements), tariff securitization and structured credit enhancement.
• Derivative-based or derivative supported financing, including crude oil and gas forward and futures-based financing, structured caps, floors and collars.
• Power Project Financing, including structuring of tranched senior debt, subordinated debt, mezzanine financing, equity and quasi-equity, and seed capital/project development funding, based on a robust structure of the necessary supporting agreements and contracts relevant to Power Projects.
• Infrastructure Financing, including arrangement and financing of PPP structures in combination with Project Finance structuring (where applicable), including but not limited to Concession and related Arrangements such as BOT (Build, Operate, Transfer), BOO (Build, Operate, Own), BT (Build and Transfer), IA (Implementation Agreements), etc.
  
  

Project Finance

• Alpine has from inception integrated Project Finance as one of its core capabilities. Project Finance skills, expertise and experience are still underutilized in the African financial arena.
• As a result, in the past decades, numerous projects that should have been structured from the initial stage using a non-recourse project finance structure with the full range of the appropriate contracts/agreements, including the Construction, Supply, Off-take, Operation & Maintenance, Support Agreements, License and/or Concession Agreements- along with appropriate ring fencing and segregation of cash flows, and the right mix of equity and project finance debt participants in place- have instead been financed using bank loans secured against fixed and floating charges on assets and/or legal mortgages and personal guarantees.
• This is inherently unstable and means that if changes occur in the operating environment, whether through macroeconomic or market conditions, or specific project issues, these loans can swiftly become non-performing and are difficult to workout given the incorrect nature of the funding arrangements, thus forcing the borrower into insolvency, even though the underlying project could still be viable.
• There is often significant overlooked correlation between the various elements of a project finance transaction, and a thorough understanding of the dynamics involved can be the difference between a successful long -term sustainable project and a failure.
  
  

Securitization

• Where applicable, realizing immediate value through securitization of future cash flows of assets or portfolios of assets, where a sale of the asset or portfolio is not desired, or cannot be achieved in a timely fashion without disrupting the relevant market.
• Combining these cash flows into a securitized asset class, that can be sold outright and/or exchanged/swapped for liquid assets, which can be sold to realize value.
  
  

Capital Markets Solutions

• Where appropriate, through our extensive knowledge and expertise with international and domestic capital markets, we can recommend when a capital markets-based approach to fundraising may be cheaper and provide longer term funding than bank based financing.
• Debt Capital Markets: Financing of new debt and/or refinancing of existing obligations by bonds sold through private placement, Eurobond Reg S/144A issuance, Panda Bonds (Chinese RMB bonds sold in the domestic China market), Sukuk bonds, and other creative DCM structures.
• Equity Capital Markets: sale of shares through listing of shares, Initial or Secondary Public Offerings or targeted Private Placements.
  
  

Risk Management

• Supporting Clients to ensure that the various Risks inherent in all Financings are identified and managed appropriately.
• These include Interest Rate Risk, Commodity Risk, Currency Risk, Counterparty Risk and Market Risk Premium Exposure.
  
  

Equity Investment/Strategic Partner Identification and Screening

• Utilizing our network of relationships with financial and strategic investors (including but not limited to international and domestic asset managers and pension funds, institutional investors, specialized oil & gas, power, infrastructure and real estate investors, Sovereign Wealth Funds, Development Finance Institutions, Export Credit Agencies and HNW investors): to thoughtfully identify and screen suitable investors and partners for our clients.
• These different groups of investors and partners have significantly varied risk appetites, asset preferences, investment criteria and financial capacity and sophistication. Our expertise with these issues considerably enhances our ability to overcome the often-encountered problem of discussions and meetings with potential investors and partners not leading to any meaningful end results.
• Based on our knowledge of and experience with the requirements of both sides, we are very well placed to instead convert these interactions into concrete and mutually beneficial transactions and partnerships.