By Nick Flitterman

Philp on Financial Fair Play – Portland on the BBC again

The BBC once again sought the input of Portland’s Head of Stadia Financing, Harry Philp as it ran a piece of the topical subject of Financial Fair play this week.

Harry shares the benefit of his experience of working in football financing to opine on what stance UEFA may take on sponsorship as part of FFP, and in particular as it might impact Manchester City and Paris St. Germain – two of the clubs benefiting from ‘close to home’ sponsorship. The full article can be found by clicking here.

To discuss this further, Harry can be contacted at harry.philp@portlandadvisers.com or +44 20 7183 8392

By Nick Flitterman

Portland on the BBC

Harry Philp, Portland Advisers’s Head of Stadia Financing, was interviewed on the BBC’s “Talking Business with Linda Yueh” TV programme ” on 1st March 2014 with the focus of discussion on why foreign investors buy British football clubs.  Harry entered into a lively debate and gave his insight from a financial perspective.

To see the interview in full on the BBC iplayer, click here. The start of the discussion can be found at 12 minutes 15 seconds into the programme.

For further information or to discuss football stadia financing, contact Harry directly on harry.philp@portlandadvisers.com or +44 20 7183 8392.

By portland2015a

Portland Secures Two More Mandates

Portland Advisers has secured two new financial advisory mandates – one in the UK raising construction finance for two solar parks and the other providing bidding support for a waste infrastructure project in Greece.
The former is to raise finance on a short term basis for two solar parks in the South West of the UK with a nameplate capacity of c. 15MW. A potential lender has been identified and at present a comprehensive due diligence exercise is under way with EPC / solar panels most likely being sourced from Germany. Financial Close is envisaged for late December 2013 and construction of the plants will commence in December with the objective of having the plants grid-connected prior to 31 March 2014 in order to achieve 1.6ROC/MWh revenue support.
In Greece, Portland is advising a Greek construction consortium for two infrastructure projects (waste) – one project located in the Athens area and the other located in the Patras area. Both projects will use MBT technology sourced from a highly experienced German supply chain. The consortium has been pre-qualified and after a competitive dialogue with the authorities will have to provide a financial and technical binding bid with the target date of April 2014. Portland is advising how to best structure the debt portion of the transaction.

For further information contact Klaus Frietsch at klaus.frietsch@portlandadvisers.com or on +44 20 7183 8394 or Mike Harlow at mike.harlow@portlandadvisers.com or on +44 20 7183 7200

By portland2015a

Green Chairs Panel at Euromoney Institutional & Alternative Lender Conference

Monday, September 23rd, 2013

In the conference season, Jason Green, Senior Advisor at Portland, chaired a panel discussion amongst institutional investors and asset managers at Euromoney’s inaugural Institutional & Alternative Lending conference in London on 19^th-20th September.

With representatives from Allianz Global Investors, Legal & General Investment Management, Aviva Investors and the world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock, Jason guided the panel through a lively discussion of how the big institutions are providing liquidity to Global Project & Infrastructure deals in the wake of continued bank market weakness.  Topics covered included the growth of privately-placed institutional debt as an alternative to bank finance and traditional public securities, the increased acceptance by pools of investors of greenfield project risks and some of the implications of Solvency II on institutional appetite.  Many of the top credit managers, opportunities funds and direct lending institutions, all known to Portland Advisers, were present.  They are playing a growing and increasingly important role in global financing markets, not only in addressing market failure, but as key providers of liquidity for high quality, long term projects.

For further information see the Euromoney Conference website here or contact Jason directly on +44 (0) 20 7183 8288 and at Jason.green@portlandadvisers.com

By Nick Flitterman

Knox acts as Expert Witness

Geoff Knox acted as an expert witness to the Supreme Court of Western Australia in the recently settled $3.5 billion lawsuit filed by Perdaman Chemicals against an Australian subsidiary of Lanco Infratech Limited.

Geoff was approached to use his experience of raising non-recourse project financing for major projects to provide input into matters surrounding the debt financing of the financing of Perdaman’s proposed $3.8 billion urea project at Collie, Western Australia, which collapsed in 2011.

For further information click here

By Nick Flitterman

BBC seeks Portland perspective on Sir Alex’s retirement

Following the official announcement by Sir Alex Ferguson that he will retire from his position as manager of Manchester United at the end of the current season in favour of a role as Director and Club Ambassador, Portland’s Head of Stadium Finance, Harry Philp, was sought out by the BBC to reflect on the impact this may have on Manchester United’s commercial strategy.

The full article can be found by clicking here.

For further thoughts and insight, contact Harry directly on +44 20 7183 8392 or at harry.philp@portlandadvisers.com