OpCo-PropCo: A Redundant Technique or Here to Stay?

OpCo-PropCo: A Redundant Technique or Here to Stay?

Historically, sale and leaseback transactions have proven to be an effective and competitive way to finance acquisitions and to refinance companies that own real estate. In its traditional form, a company would sell its properties on an outright basis before leasing it back. In the early 2000s, companies began to move away from this traditional method in favour of the so-called OpCo-PropCo structure in which real estate would be leveraged without selling it. The financial crisis has exposed challenges in OpCo-PropCo transactions, the most important one being refinancing. In this article, we evaluate the once popular real estate monetisation technique and explore what options exist to meet the OpCo-PropCo refinancing challenge.

Market Insight 21-11-2011 OpCo-PropCo: A Redundant Technique or Here to Stay?

The Eurozone Debt Crisis: Can Structured Finance Help?

The Eurozone Debt Crisis: Can Structured Finance Help?

We all know that Structured Finance has had its own fall from grace in 2008. But now that debt investors have shifted their concerns mainly to sovereign debt whilst the credit performance of structured finance debt seems to be holding up, there is an opportunity for governments to consider applying structured finance solutions, that offer creative ways of leveraging their assets, in an effort to curb budgetary debt problems paving the way for sustained economic growth. In this article we examine the case for governments in the Eurozone to seek out sound structured finance funding as part of their debt packages.

Market Insight 27-09-2011 The Eurozone Debt Crisis: Can structured finance help?

Project Financing: Transformation or bust?

As a result of the turmoil of the past couple of years, some asset classes have fallen out of favour, others have become more popular. Market participants are scrutinising the value of every asset class and being more selective as to where they allocate their time and capital. In this Market Insight we consider how project finance will fare as it is put under the microscope by banks and investors and the impact of Basel III on this asset class.

Market Insight 16-05-2011 Project Financing: Transformation or bust?