Infrastructure Focus Areas
What We Finance
Energy and Power
We finance utility-scale renewable energy projects including solar, wind, and hydro, as well as gas-to-power and grid infrastructure. Projects typically require power purchase agreements or government concessions and benefit from long-term contracted revenues that support project finance structures.
Transport and Logistics
We finance toll roads, ports, airports, railways, and logistics corridors. Transport assets with concession agreements or government-backed traffic guarantees are particularly suited to our project finance structures, given their long operational lives and stable cash generation.
Water and Utilities
We finance water treatment plants, wastewater facilities, municipal utility networks, and waste-to-energy projects. These assets typically benefit from regulated tariff frameworks that provide revenue certainty, making them well-suited to long-duration project finance with institutional lenders.
Pre-Feasibility Assessment
We conduct an early-stage assessment of the project's technical feasibility, regulatory status, and financing viability. This assessment helps us identify any structural issues that need to be resolved before a facility can be arranged, and allows us to provide initial guidance to sponsors on the most appropriate financing approach.
Project Finance Structuring
Our infrastructure finance team structures the facility around the project's cash flows rather than the sponsor's balance sheet. This involves detailed financial modelling, stress-testing of revenue and cost assumptions, design of the covenant and reserve account framework, and selection of appropriate security instruments.
Development Finance Institution Engagement
Many of our infrastructure transactions benefit from participation by development finance institutions and multilateral lenders whose involvement can improve pricing, provide political risk coverage, and unlock additional private capital. We have established relationships with the leading DFIs operating in our target markets and actively facilitate their participation in eligible transactions.
Construction and Operational Phase Monitoring
Infrastructure project finance requires active monitoring through the construction and operational phases. Our team supports borrowers with milestone certifications, drawdown management, and lender reporting throughout the project lifecycle, ensuring that the facility remains in compliance and that any issues are addressed proactively.
FAQ
Common Questions
Does Polinvest require a government guarantee for infrastructure projects?
Not in all cases. Many infrastructure projects can be financed on a limited-recourse basis where the revenue stream, a power purchase agreement, concession toll, or utility tariff, provides sufficient lender comfort without a sovereign guarantee. However, for very large transactions or projects in higher-risk jurisdictions, government support can improve the financing terms significantly.
What is blended finance and does Polinvest use it?
Blended finance involves combining concessional capital from development finance institutions or grant-makers with commercial capital from private investors to improve the risk-return profile of infrastructure transactions. We are experienced in structuring blended finance facilities and actively work with DFI partners to deploy this approach in markets where purely commercial financing is not yet available.
How long do infrastructure facility tenors typically run?
Our infrastructure facilities have tenors ranging from 84 months (seven years) for shorter operational projects up to 240 months (20 years) for large-scale energy and transport concessions. Tenor is determined by the life of the underlying asset, the revenue contract duration, and the debt service capacity of the project cash flows.
Can Polinvest support projects in pre-construction stages?
Yes. We provide development finance to projects in the pre-construction phase that have completed their feasibility study and are progressing through regulatory approvals. Development facilities are structured with specific drawdown conditions tied to milestone achievements such as environmental clearance, land acquisition, and EPC contract execution.
Infrastructure Investment
The Long-Term Perspective We Apply
Infrastructure investment requires a different mindset from most other asset classes. The assets are large, complex, and long-lived. The cash flows are often contracted but subject to construction risk, regulatory change, and operational variability. The exit options are limited and typically occur via asset sales rather than capital markets. This combination of characteristics demands investors and lenders with genuine long-term conviction, deep sector knowledge, and the operational expertise to monitor complex assets effectively throughout their lives.
Our infrastructure finance team includes professionals with direct experience in the construction and operation of infrastructure assets, not just in structuring financial products against them. This operational knowledge significantly improves the quality of our due diligence and our ability to anticipate problems before they become defaults. We know what questions to ask EPC contractors, what O&M cost assumptions are realistic for different asset types, and what revenue ramp-up profiles are typical for toll roads, ports, and power plants in our target markets.
Environmental and social risk management is central to our infrastructure investment approach. Infrastructure projects by their nature interact significantly with local communities, natural environments, and regulatory frameworks. We apply the Equator Principles as our baseline for environmental and social risk assessment on all project finance transactions above our de minimis threshold. For transactions involving development finance institutions as co-lenders or co-investors, we additionally comply with their specific environmental and social performance standards, which are typically more detailed and prescriptive than the Equator Principles baseline.
Infrastructure Risk Management
Managing Risk Over a Multi-Decade Asset Life
Infrastructure assets have long lives, and the risks that matter most to investors change over the life of an asset. During the construction phase, the key risks are completion risk, will the asset be built to specification, on time, and within budget, and financing risk, will the required drawdowns be available when needed. During the operational phase, the key risks shift to revenue risk, operating cost risk, and maintenance capital requirements. Our monitoring framework is designed to address both phases with equal rigour.
Force majeure risk, the risk of catastrophic events beyond the control of the project parties, is an ever-present consideration in infrastructure finance. Political instability, natural disasters, grid failures, and pandemic events have all affected infrastructure projects in our target markets within recent memory. We address force majeure risk through a combination of appropriate insurance coverage, force majeure provisions in project contracts, and, where the country risk warrants it, political risk insurance from export credit agencies and development finance institutions.
Asset recycling is a concept gaining traction in many of our target markets as governments seek to monetise existing infrastructure to fund new construction. We are increasingly involved in transactions where operational infrastructure assets are sold or refinanced to release equity that the original developer can redeploy into new projects. These recycling transactions are typically attractive for incoming investors because the construction and initial operational risks have been resolved, and the revenue stream has been demonstrated rather than projected. We see asset recycling as an important and growing part of our infrastructure transaction pipeline.
Polinvest Capital
Submit Your Project Today
New, existing, and stalled projects are all considered. Our team reviews every submission and responds within five business days.
All projects considered
New, existing, or stalled, we evaluate every submission on merit.
5-day response commitment
Our origination desk responds to every submission within five business days.
$500M– $3.5B available
Active capital across syndicated, project finance, equity, and infrastructure facilities.