Seanad debates

Tuesday, 17 December 2002

National Development Finance Agency Bill, 2002: Second Stage.

 

Special purpose companies offer the following benefits. First, the optimal financing structure can be put in place to raise the money to invest in projects such as bridges or tunnels with hard tolls where private sector financing packages are not sufficiently attractive. Second, a key concern to investors, the debt repayment capacity of the borrower and the risk that the cash flow may be diverted to other parties, can be addressed. Where the cash flows are sufficient to service the debt the best way to insulate them and give maximum protection to investors/lenders is to form a special purpose company as a financing vehicle for the project. This special purpose company would raise the moneys for the project and would have priority rights for cash flows such as, for example, tolls. Such an SPC would not get involved in any other project and, therefore, investors would have more confidence that their investments would be repaid. In return the special purpose company should be able to raise the moneys on better terms, that is lower borrowing.

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