Is the Crystal Ball Clearing? | 148 comments (147 topical, 1 editorial, 0 hidden)

Obviously you know more about the state of project finance. I am reacting to news such as these:

Yields on kangaroo bonds blow out (November 22, 2011)

The European Union's crisis of confidence has reached the distant shores of the local dollar debt market as once-unimpeachable EU institutions suffer huge rises in borrowing costs.
The last few days have seen a dramatic deterioration in the market for even the highest-rated EU sellers of kangaroo bonds, paper denominated in Australian dollars and sold in Australia by foreign firms.
The starkest example was the European Investment Bank (EIB), a triple-A credit funded by all 27 members of the euro zone and one of a group of borrowers known as supranationals.

European banks have not only lost a lot of the Eurodollar funding (leading to divestment from project finance portfolios in North America as you covered in your diary The first victim of the European bank crisis: investment in the US of September 15th, 2011) but they are also losing access to funding in Australia and elsewhere. And, as a consequence, BNP beats retreat on local loan exposure as euro crisis bites (December 17, 2011)

BNP, which is one of the oldest banks in Australia (it established operations here 130 years ago), has withdrawn from the $3.7 billion syndicated loan for the Victorian desalination plant and ended its $230 million participation in the $2.1bn financing for Sevenwest Media, for which it had been one of the lead banks.
Other syndicated loans from which European banks have withdrawn include the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the port business, DP World.
Funding packages for several blue-chip companies have also been affected, including Wesfarmers and Healthscope.

And, also, MUFG in talks on RBS Australia unit (June 29, 2011)

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ is in advanced talks to buy RBS Australia's Sydney-based infrastructure advisory unit and its portfolio of public-private project finance assets.
The talks reflect MUFG's determination to expand its international operations as its domestic lending market stagnates and follows its November 2010 deal to acquire £3.3bn ($5.3bn) worth of assets in Royal Bank of Scotland's project finance portfolio in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The 30-strong Sydney unit, set up by Dutch lender ABN Amro more than a decade ago, is one of the largest groups specialising in private-public partnerships in Australia.

In other words, European banks are disappearing fast as global players in project finance, and the slack is being picked up not by Anglo-Saxon but by Asian banking.

This is partly because Europe is adopting credit-unfriendly financial regulation, in addition to the effects of the Euro crisis on foreign funding positions.

There are three stories about the euro crisis: the Republican story, the German story, and the truth. -- Paul Krugman

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Mar 12th, 2012 at 07:34:24 AM EST
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