If you have a crisis caused by, to make it simple, higher interest rates, the company becomes unable to service its debt and defaults. The banks can then decide to take over the project (wipe out equity, i.e. the investors lose their money) and/or restructure - reschedule the debt, change the terms to make debt bearable. If it still doesn't fly, then banks will lose some of the money they put in (that can be done in an orderly fashion as part of the restructuring: banks cancel a part of the debt to have a chance to get the rest back). They may also start lobbying to change the underlying economics, i.e. increase prices of the services (tolls, airport fees, etc...) if set contractually rather than by markets. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
There can be a reduction in interest rates payable to banks - formally no losses, but less revenue for banks than before
Then there can be debt cancellation (write off) - then banks will have formally lost money. What happens in practice is that banks have provisioned amount right from the start, and if a transaction looks to be in trouble, they'll provision more (before even having losses or even negotiating a restructuring). Using these provisions up when restructuring does not create losses for the bank (as they have been "preemptively" booked in earlier periods) Banks typically pile up a lot of provisions in good times (subject to tax authorities, as these provisions reduce profits and thus taxes payable) and can ride out quite significant losses for a while before it really hurts. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Looking at the chunnel, no, if you have some shareholders for taking the bloodbath. If I have understand properly, it is a bonanza for the banks having financed it at the right time. La répartie est dans l'escalier. Elle revient de suite.
