Towards a theoretical foundation of Project Finance and its practice in South Africa

Abstract

The academic research into Project Finance lags far behind the practice of it. Project Finance, with limited or non recourse debt as its defining characteristic, has been growing tremendously since 2001 and is set to grow even further. This is due to the massive spend in infrastructure both globally and in South Africa, the need for private sector involvement and the limited capacity of corporations‟ balance sheets to fund such projects. Given this setting, this research aims to act as a catalyst for the development of a theoretical foundation of Project Finance in South Africa and to encourage further research. There were two phases to the research. The first phase consisted of an analysis of twenty two case studies on international projects that have used Project Finance, with the aim of extracting theories, principles and lessons that can be used to form a theory base. The second phase consisted of sixteen interviews with South African Project Finance industry experts, based on the theory from phase one, with the aim of exploring the current state of South African Project Finance. The first phase resulted in a broad description of the theory of Project Finance that can be used as an introduction to Project Finance or as a base for further research. The second phase produced a portrayal of South African Project Finance as it relates to the theory with specific recommendations for further research into Project Finance in South Africa. Copyright