مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد ساز و کار مراقبت از حاصل سرمایه گذاری خصوصی در پروژه عمومی – الزویر 2022

Abstract

     Despite the widespread attention for the private financing of infrastructure projects, actual empirical work on financing public-private partnerships remains limited. Especially the topics of return on equity and lenders’ cash flow control in relation to uncertainty are under-researched. The aim of this paper is to investigate and discuss the mechanisms applied by private financiers of infrastructure projects to protect their returns on investment. Using semi-structured interviews, the qualitative viewpoints of infrastructure financiers and their consultants on infrastructure investment are examined. The findings identify nine control mechanisms that financiers apply, including a range of asset and risk diversification portfolio strategies for their infrastructure investments, and reveal that they depend on governance mechanisms relating to the project environment, relations, knowledge and expertise. Hence, this study provides a better understanding of the actions and mechanisms applied to protect a return on infrastructure investments that leverage partnering strategies between public authorities and private investors in public infrastructure projects. This contributes to the debate on project financing under uncertainty and its implications for project governance in public private partnerships.

Introduction

     The term infrastructure generally covers all physical assets, equipment, and facilities of interrelated transport and energy systems and the necessary service providers, together with the underlying structures, and accompanying organizations and business models, rules, and regulations, which are used to offer certain specific commodities and services (Weber et al., 2011; Leendertse & Arts, 2020). Traditionally, most infrastructure investments have been financed by public funds (OECD, 2015; Sclar, 2015). Since the 1980′s, New Public Management has gained popularity as a public governance model and stimulated private involvement in public services, for example through public-private partnerships (PPPs), resulting in a trend of increasing private financing of public infrastructure projects (see for example Cui et al., 2018; Gamble, 2019; Opara & Rausa, 2019). Under this governance model, the role of the private sector has been extended to the provision of what are generally considered public services such as the design, financing, building, maintaining, and operating of infrastructure assets, and the delivery of associated services including the associated risk management (Agyenim-Boateng et al., 2017; Van den Hurk & Heuskes, 2017).

Conclusions

     This study aimed to provide an understanding of how financiers in infrastructure PPP projects protect their returns on investment through control mechanisms. For this purpose, data on the investment practices of finance actors, collected through a set of interviews were critically reflected upon in relation to existing literature on this topic. Based on this reflection, it can be concluded that:

• Infrastructure investments have a low volatility and are less vulnerable than other assets to economic changes and inflation. As such, investing in infrastructure makes a valuable contribution to investment portfolio diversification as a way to protect investors’ returns against shocks and uncertainties in the market;

• Nine main control mechanisms could be identified to ensure returns on investment in (public) infrastructure development projects in which transaction costs economics and project governance play an important role: asset portfolio allocation, diversification among different infrastructure options, evaluation of risks and uncertainties, allocation of risks, financial knowledge, public governance and institutional setting, relational governance, project experience and data management;