Project Finance

The complexity of the project finance area, emergence of new structures, involvement of numerous parties and industries require support from a law firm with the knowledge and resources to guide your involvement.

Service to Numerous Project Owners and Sponsors

The Holland & Knight Project Finance Team represents the interests of majority and minority finance partners and sponsors, including commercial lenders, export credit agencies, multilateral development banks, developers, suppliers and contractors. We have experience in risk identification and allocation aspects of numerous types of projects, as well as practical knowledge of financing methods and ensuing complications involving publicly funded undertakings as privatization project structures.

Comprehensive Support for a Variety of Projects

Team members' insights extend to BLT, BOT, BOO, BTO, BOOT, WBOT, DBO, DBOM and IPP structures, as well as the provisions of lending and intercreditor agreements, EPC contracts, service and management contracts, operations and maintenance agreements, site use and fuel supply agreements, licenses, leases, concessions and similar arrangements.

The group incorporates advanced risk allocation and mitigation techniques to resolve issues encountered when financing infrastructure projects on a limited-recourse basis, such as:

• airports and seaports
• rail and urban mass transit
• power plants, utilizing either fossil fuels or renewable energy sources
• water treatment facilities
• telecommunications networks
• waste-disposal facilities
• oil-and-gas production and refining facilities

Advising on an International Scale

The need for project financing remains high throughout the world, as countries develop and require increasing supplies of public utilities and infrastructure. Since project finance issues may arise anywhere in the world, you require a firm that is equipped to respond on a worldwide basis. Through the Latin America Practice Group and our international offices in Latin America, Holland & Knight provides global representation to better serve you.

Holland & Knight has the largest group of partners and associates in the United States with the requisite linguistic skills and in-country experience to conclude transactions in Latin America successfully. A number of our firm lawyers previously lived and worked in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, acquiring a wide range of experience conducting business in these regions, while others have represented clients in significant transactions throughout Asia.

Understanding International Financial Institutions and Political Risk Insurers

Your business requires counsel with a firsthand understanding of programs and policies, and the ability to provide prompt notice of the latest innovations for structuring equity and debt capital and mitigating international project risks. Holland & Knight's project finance lawyers have experience with these transactions.

Counsel for a Diverse Range of Projects

Transportation Infrastructure

The firm's extensive transportation law practice covers:

• all aspects of air, maritime and surface transportation, addressing issues involving both common and private carriage
• marine terminals and LNG projects
• transportation intermediaries

Airports and Seaports

Holland & Knight lawyers have vast experience with privatization projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, and have advised government authorities and operators in the drafting of:

• design and development, concession, management, leasing, fuel supply, security, air traffic tower management, noise abatement, and crash, fire and rescue program agreements
• EPC and construction contracts
• environmental remediation programs

In addition, port authorities, national governments, container shipping companies and private companies have all worked with Holland & Knight to restructure, reform and privatize seaports located around the world.

Surface Transportation and Infrastructure

As federal assistance became a dominant economic force in the development of needed public infrastructure, Holland & Knight has brought together lawyers with key governmental, private section and legislative experience to help clients obtain the best benefit from these programs. Lawyers in this group advise clients involved in every component of North American surface transportation industry's legal environment. We have assisted the developers of new rail projects, as well as handled to purchase and sale of various rail assets.

Energy, Utilities and Oil and Gas

Clients preparing for and facing a restructured utilities industry rely on the firm's energy practice group. Holland & Knight lawyers represent some of the largest energy-related companies in the world and other industry players, including:

• lenders
• independent power producers (fossil fuel, renewables, hydro & wind, geothermal)
• non-utility generators and cogenerators
• small power producers
• municipal electric utilities
• rural electric cooperatives
• power brokers/marketers
• refinery interests and developers

We also have extensive experience in representing developers and contractors with large power plant construction concerns and electric power transmission and distribution equipment manufacturers.

To promote and support our clients, members of the water law practice group have participated in developing innovative approaches for financing the modernization of water infrastructure.

Telecommunications, Services and Emerging Technologies

The telecommunications, services and technology industries are undergoing monumental change. Traditional boundaries between telephony and computer technologies are replaced with new, competitive alternatives; and policymakers worldwide try to make regulation more responsive to this shifting landscape and public need.

In response to these changes and needs, we establish close relationships with clients and provide the full range of legal services involved in all aspects of communications and emerging technologies. We remain focused on you as we work through complex transactions and financing to achieve your objectives.