How are your teams organised?
We carry out our activity from several platforms in different global locations. The Paris/London team covers all of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We also have two dedicated teams in Milan and Madrid for each of those domestic markets. In New York, we have a team covering North America and another for Latin America, which also has two people in Brazil. Asia is covered from Hong Kong with a number of representatives in Singapore and correspondents in Tokyo. Finally, we have a team in Sydney to cover Australia and New Zealand. So our coverage is truly global. We can keep right on top of developments in the projects and markets.

Could you tell us about your product range?
These are generally senior project debt products, whether medium- or long-term, junior project debt or holding company financing or bridge financings to cover the structuring period for long-term project financing. These products finance new constructions, renovations or acquisitions and privatisations. We also carry out a structured finance advisory activity. In all cases, we round out our offer with the products of the other business lines of the Bank related to the risks or needs of the projects we finance or we advice.

Would you tell us a little more about coordination with the Bank’s other product lines?
Most of our projects are exposed to risks of changes in interest rates, currencies or commodity prices. For some projects, financing solutions involve the bonds markets. In all cases, we identify these situations upstream so that we can offer global solutions to our clients, with optimised financing and hedging of risks. This approach requires true teamwork among business lines, with an upstream thought process to find the optimal solution for the client. This coordination helps us to maximise the product range of the Bank’s business lines.
 
Who are the clients to whom you offer this product range?
Basically, they are companies that wish to transfer some of their project risks. There may have various rationales, including balance sheets constraints and the concern for discipline (with the technique of non-recourse financing placing greater demands on the way deals are structured and on the contractual arrangements). It can also be the logical consequence of investing through a consortium, because the debt is raised by the consortium rather than by each member individually. Finally, there is the desire to transfer project or country risks. Certain large companies elect to finance their entire development outside their home country via non-recourse financings. Most of our clients are European, Japanese or US industrial companies, and a few are financial sponsors.

What advantages do you have in this sector?
First of all, our activity is completely international and we have the ability to assist our clients in most geographic regions where they invest. We have a long-term strategy and a highly consistent business approach. Even in the early-2000s crisis period for energy markets and the recent financial crisis, we never stopped financing deals. Clients appreciate the durability and reliability of our process. Finally, an advantage of size: our teams are made up of experts with thorough knowledge of the sector and the clients. These experts have a true ability to find innovative solutions in response to the client’s needs. We place the greatest importance on the quality of execution of the mandates entrusted to us.

What do you think the second half of 2010 holds in store?
I expect very good things from 2010. In 2009, we signed 26 deals as lead in either financing or advisory roles. In the first half of 2010, we already realised 14 transactions.

In 2008, Crédit Agricole CIB received a mandate from GDF Suez Energy International and Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) for the Al Dur project. The Bank played a key role in financing the project and in hedging the interest rate risks associated with it. This project is a perfect illustration of coordinated teamwork within the Bank.

The project’s success resulted from a series of joint efforts: the power team originated, structured and executed the project financing, working closely with the relationship managers. Other contributors were the credit syndication team, the capital markets team for interest rate hedging, Crédit Agricole CIB in Seoul for the KEIC tranche and the Islamic finance team and Banque Saudi Fransi for the Islamic tranches. This high-level cooperation was also recognised in the Al Dur project’s nomination for the Club des Trentes.

The teams took an innovative, multi-source approach amid a declining market for project finance in 2009. This approach is also a response to the impossibility of implementing the financing in the form originally planned, in view of its size and term. This strategy helped to offset the lack of liquidity on the commercial debt market. Side by side with its partners, Standard Chartered and Mashreqbank, the Bank reshaped the financing’s profile and optimised use of the various liquidity sources.

In proving its capabilities through this project, Crédit Agricole CIB again affirmed its leadership position in the power sector. The Bank also demonstrated its ability to adapt and innovate on behalf of its clients.