First Guarantees deployed ‘this year’
11 October 2012
First projects using UK Guarantees could be signed this year; just seven public schemes have applied so far
The first projects to benefit from the government’s UK Guarantees scheme could reach financial close before the end of the year, Treasury unit Infrastructure UK (IUK) has said.Doug Segars, IUK’s head of infrastructure finance, said that although the speed with which the guarantees could be deployed would depend on the complexity of each individual project, the Treasury is ready to work within people’s timetables.
“We are looking at some projects with a timetable to close this year and we can work to those timetables,” he told delegates at Partnerships Bulletin’s Big Question event today, in response to a question on how quickly the UK Guarantees scheme can respond.
Segars also revealed that the Treasury has received over 50 approaches relating to the Guarantees scheme – but said only seven of those have been from public projects, with the rest coming from private infrastructure initiatives.
He confirmed that the scheme is also aimed squarely at new entrants to the market and not about stimulating the banking market.
“The problem banks have is tenor, not credit,” he said. “UK Guarantees won’t help that problem and we recognise that. This is really about trying to bring in other investors for whom credit, not tenor, is the issue.”
For the full write-up of the event, hosted by law firm Stephenson Harwood, see the upcoming November issue of Partnerships Bulletin.
