Project Development

The focus is on 'strategic' infrastructure projects, those that will add competitiveness to a country or region over a period of 20-30 years.  Our structure allows us to arrange financing for solid infrastructure projects, and we focus on both productivity infrastructure and 'new' energy infrastructures.  Water is a particular focus, as is performance contracting. Our project development repertoire includes a wide range of equity funds (sector and geographically focused), ECA's, multilateral organizations, and agencies. The product is aimed at making a difference in the long-term capabilities of a country, or region, while achieving extraordinary results for sponsors.

1. Project Identification

CG/LA’s ability to identify and provide due diligence on infrastructure projects, and on the developers of infrastructure projects, is outstanding. We do this globally, aided by our analytic data bases – of more than 1000 developers, 22,000 decision-makers and more than 750 discrete projects. The service is available for all areas of infrastructure.

2. Feasibility Studies

In the new paradigm, feasibility studies are king – without a feasibility study the public sector has no idea what it needs to do, and what its potential liabilities might be; and the private sector has no idea of the cost of the project, and no idea either of its key financial and physical metrics. Currently this is one of the great holes in the new model; CG/LA works closely with USTDA and the MDB Trust Funds to identify sources of financing, and is also working to create new sources.

3. Project Structure

CG/LA writes ‘business plans’ for both infrastructure projects, and infrastructure businesses – this work involves conceptualizing key aspects of project design and finance. Working with our specialized partners, we also structure projects in the classic sense, optimizing public and private roles and then finding the funds to make those projects go forward.

4. Project Investment

Investment is the result we are all looking for, and CG/LA works closely with ECA’s, local investment banks, the region’s pension funds, and the few remaining equity funds to generate this investment. Our focus is on results-oriented projects, with a clear exit – hopefully within 36 months. We are in the process of creating two sector funds, one focused on Latin America, and one global, for this purpose. Opportunities in the coming years will be increasingly generated by private industry, and will tend to strategic, highly-focused, niche-oriented and successful to the extent that the public is managed efficiently, and densely leveraged in terms of transactions costs.

A Note on Infrastructure Audits: Based on our Analytic Data Bases, CG/LA is pioneering infrastructure audits - or Rankings -  for countries and regions, from the private sector competitiveness perspective. This work examines the stock of infrastructure, and the physical and financial performance of that infrastructure, against world-class metrics. Based on that critical intelligence, the Infrastructure Audit identifies areas of priority, for (a) improved performance of existing projects, and (b) identification and design – always in a competitiveness framework – for new projects.

For more information on Project Development Services, please contact:

Anand Hemnani • Senior Vice President, Chief Investment Officer • email: ahemnani@cg-la.com • tel: +55.11.3285.2055