Special purpose vehicles – panel discussion
Westlink M7. Source: Lendlease
Special purpose vehicles Key points: • • •
Special purpose vehicles (SPVs) are a critical success factor for major projects. While SPVs carry ‘all the risk’, they may not always have all the resources needed to perform. There can be a major risk of conflicts for non-independent SPV directors.
Panellists: ► ► ► ►
Matt Brassington, Chief Executive Officer, Aquasure Kim Curtain, Executive Director, Head of Infrastructure and Structured Finance Unit, NSW Treasury Ian Hunt, Chief Executive Officer, Moorebank Intermodal Company Charles Mott, Chief Executive Officer, NorthWestern Roads Group
Moderator: ►
Christopher Voyce, Executive Director, Co-Head Infrastructure, Utilities & Renewables, ANZ, Macquarie Capital
Christopher Voyce (CV): We’re going to talk in-depth about Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), which manage the delivery, operations and governance of Public Private
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Partnerships (PPPs). My opening question to the panel is: SPVs have all the risk, but not always all the power with these projects; what do you see as the expectations of debt, equity, the client and the SPV management itself on some of these major projects? Charles Mott (CM): To give a succinct answer, the challenge for an SPV is to be relevant and to add value. If the SPV isn’t adding value, it shouldn’t be there. There were mistakes made in the early days when SPVs were literally treated as passthrough vehicles, but they are now far better resourced, have greater capability, and are therefore now fulfilling their true role. Matt Brassington (MB): The expectation is that we make sure that everybody gets what they signed up for: the state gets what it decided it would pay, with the same level of risk that it originally set; the debt providers get all their money back and their interest on time; and the equity guys get the
