The live broadcast was facilitated by Colin Foreman, Deputy Editor at MEED with an expert panel consisting of Paul Woodman, Managing Director – ASGC, R.Laskshmanan, Founder and Managing Director of Pyramid Specialized Management Consulting (PSMC) and David Clifton, Regional Development Director – Faithful+Gould.
Woodman talked around the introduction of UK export finance and how it has made the finance market more competitive. Compared to local banks, UK export finance offers a better interest rate and a longer repayment period of 10 years, after construction ends.
Laskshmanan pointed out that he has noticed a significant shift in how projects are financed, seeing the PPP model come into place, a rise in supplier financing and funding from European and Japanese banks alongside the export credit Paul had mentioned.
Clifton related the different means of funding to the lack of liquidity in the market to which Woodman foresees improving as the export credit agencies begin to sell the projects to the local bank after the construction period.
Following a detailed discussion on traditional and alternative funding the panel talked about current risks and opportunities in the market and which countries in the GCC are attracting the most interest both from the market and what the terms of engagement are.
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