Our Offering

There are four main factors differentiating GPFAC’s advisory services:

• Industrial experience with industrial companies and major equipment contractors;
• Experience working across the financial services sector in a variety of roles (advisor, underwriter, and equity investor);
• Unique experience with renewable energy; and
• Global presence (US, Europe, Africa, and Asia).

GPFAC Principals get it right the first time, increasing the probability of success and dramatically reducing development time and cost. Financial Advisory Services include:

• Support negotiation of bankable commercial contracts;
• Develop a bankable security package and financial structure;
• Run the process of obtaining banking commitments;
• Manage the underwriting process on behalf of sponsors; and
• Drive the closing process.

GPFAC can conduct a comprehensive review of a project finance transaction and produce a due diligence report that outlines:

• Critical risks;
• Possible solutions to mitigate these risks; and
• Conclusions and recommendations.

This service can help to drive the closing process by focusing resources on the major deal-breakers from a financing standpoint.

GPFAC has developed a unique scoring methodology to screen projects on a consistent basis, regardless of technology, size, or geographic region. These scores, together with an assessment of the project’s profitability, enable the classification of projects from difficult projects to “low-hanging fruit”.

When applied to a portfolio, this can facilitate rational allocation of resources and guide strategic portfolio decisions, such as acquisition and divestiture.

Listen to a recent podcast that illustrates our approach to project screening and portfolio management:

Screening and Portfolio Management PODCAST

GPFAC will support clients and Host Governments in strategy and project preparation to increase the likelihood of attracting institutional investment.

Services include:

• Review of the policy framework for institutional investment;
• Review of the project documents available to bidders;
• Review of collateral package; and
• Assessment of bankability.

GPFAC’s global experience qualifies it to make such assessments and this facilitates an investor-friendly environment to catalyze infrastructure investments.

For projects that are in the development phase, GPFAC has developed a proprietary modeling approach that has gained broad acceptance from developers, project participants, lenders, and international rating agencies.  The advantage of this approach is a resulting streamlined project finance model.

This podcast explains our approach to developing sophisticated project finance models from scratch: Financial Model Development PODCAST

What differentiates GPFAC project finance models are the following factors:

• Modeling performed by project finance professionals, not Excel programmers;
• Low risk of mistakes through built-in checks;
• Models meet standards and utilize common parameters;
• Models are of a manageable size; and
• Models are well documented and easy-to-use.

GPFAC does not recommend that complex models during the development phase be used to monitor a project during operations because:

• Closing models rarely reflect actual costs because of change orders and Force Majeure events;
• Monitoring models do not need construction financing or loan repayment calculations; and
• Monitoring models focus on ‘actuals’ versus ‘budget’ for the near term.

Therefore, GPFAC works with clients and lenders to develop an easier-to-use monitoring model that meets their reporting needs and also checks compliance with covenants in the loan documents.

Professional development and training for finance practitioners is important and often undervalued. For more on this theme, you can listen to Mr. Mathur’s insight in this Podcast:

Professional Development and Training PODCAST

GPFAC has developed a broad range of training modules in the area of Project & Structured Finance, including courses in the following:

• Limited Recourse Project Finance
• Risk Management & Mitigation
• Loan Documentation
• Project Screening
• Negotiation
• Global Financing Techniques
• Loan Syndication
• Joint Development Agreement
• Sales Forecasting

GPFAC Principals have been delivering training programs for over 30 years in the US, Canada, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and the Far East.  The broad range of categories and representative clients includes Industrial Companies (ABB, GE Capital), Government Institutions (US Department of Energy, PDVSA), and Banks and Financial Institutions (EBRD, National Commercial Bank).

GPFAC will custom-tailor a training program based upon an organization’s specific needs.  However, GPFAC offers three off-the-shelf workshops that have found broad applicability:

• 2-day workshop in Financial Modeling introduces participants to the building of financial models for complex project finance transactions.
• 3-day workshop in Project Finance offers a unique, broad and detailed business perspective on project finance.
• 4-day workshop in Project Finance and Financial Modeling combines the most essential aspects of the 3-day workshop on Project Finance and the 2-day workshop on Financial Modeling.  The Financial Modeling section focuses on using a financial model instead of building one. The content of this workshop has been developed in close coordination with leading commercial banks and industrial companies with the objective of covering project finance and modeling in a 4-day workshop.

• Content is not boiler-plate material downloaded from the Internet
• Focus on real knowledge, practical applications, and tools that can be used on the job
• Realistic and attainable learning objectives
• Emphasis on learning by doing (quizzes, exercises, case studies, simulated negotiation)
• Engaging, animated workshops (nobody falls asleep)
• Instructors are actual project finance and modeling professionals with extensive and current financial closing experience (not academics with limited closing experience)

EBL is an extension of Classroom Instruction that enables rotational employees to gain a practical understanding of other departments in an organization:

• Through short-term assignments (typically of 3-6 months duration).
• Where the objective, over time, is to improve job performance and promote a common credit culture within the organization.
• It is based upon best practices in the industry; and with a detailed framework containing all the administrative tools necessary for implementing a successful program.

Mentoring is the third leg of a comprehensive training program:

• An employee (the “Mentee”) is matched with a Mentor (internal or external) with the objective of facilitating the Mentee’s personal and professional career growth.
• Synergistic with Classroom Instruction and EBL.
• However, the duration of a Mentor-Mentee relationship generally is of a significantly longer duration than an EBL program.
• Benefits to an organization include:

• • Better career development of employees,
  • Increased retention rates; and
  • Higher productivity.

A key challenge is ensuring that the role of the Mentor does not undermine the role of the employee’s supervisor.