【独家】视频解读世界银行2017版《PPP合同条款指南》——企业融资

世界银行《2017版PPP合同条款指南》摘要之——“企业融资”

Corporate entities typically use a range of financing means to fund their daily business needs across their corporate group. They will have credit facility arrangements with their relationship banks and may also raise finance through bond issues (public or private). They may also have multiple operating assets already generating revenue. If a new investment opportunity arises (such as a PPP Project), some corporate entities may prefer to put in place additional finance on a corporate basis instead of going down an investment-specific route (such as project finance).

企业实体一般使用一系列的融资手段为其整个企业集团日常的经营活动需要提供资金。它们可能与往来银行有信贷融资安排，也可能通过公开或者非公开发行债券融资。它们也可能拥有几个已经已进入运营的资产产生了收入。如果有新的投资机会出现（比如一个PPP项目），一些企业实体可能会以企业的名义增加融资，而不是走通过项目融资的路线。

Some corporates may not even need to enter into specific additional financing arrangements for particular investments as their balance sheets are so strong that they have sufficient financial reserves to finance the investment in question. The funding of investments in this way is called corporate financing and is also known as "on balance sheet" financing.

一些企业可能根本不需要对某项投资增加融资安排，因为其有状态良好的资产负债表，有充足的资金储备用于投资。以这种方式获得投资资金称为企业融资，又称为“表内”融资。

It is also possible that PPP Projects may be financed by a combination of project and corporate finance and the procurement process and documentation will need to be adapted appropriately.

另外，PPP项目也可以通过将项目融资和企业融资相结合的方式进行融资，当然，采购流程和文件也需要作相应的调整。

Why are PPP Projects financed "on balance sheet"?

PPP Contracts in Context, PPP Projects are typically funded through limited recourse project financing of an SPV owned by sponsor parties. This is both because of the need to bring together different sponsors to build and operate an asset (e.g. financial investors would not have the technical capability to build the required asset) and possibly because the amount of finance required is usually beyond the balance-sheet capacity of an individual sponsor. Project financing is usually classified as “off balance sheet” which may be useful from an accounting perspective for the parties involved and can often have a lower cost of capital than corporate financing because of the high gearing of cheaper third party debt to more expensive equity.

为什么PPP项目需要“表内”融资？

PPP项目一般由项目发起人（投资人）所有的SPV通过有限追索权项目融资提供资金。这既是因为需要将不同的发起人（投资人）团结起来建设并运营一项资产（比如财务投资者没有建设资产所需的技术能力），也可能是因为某一单独的发起人（投资人）的资产负债表不足以提供所需要的资金。项目融资通常被划至“表外”，从项目参与方的会计角度来说这种方式是有利的，而且比企业融资的资金成本更低，因为它让低成本的第三方贷款与高成本的股权（融资）可以高度配合。

However, although not commonly used, corporate/on balance sheet financing can play a role in PPP-type projects and may be suitable in a number of circumstances. These include where a bidder is the sole sponsor, has a strong balance sheet and typically uses corporate finance for new projects as part of its normal business model or where it may be more cost-effective to use balance sheet financing to reduce transaction costs.

然而，尽管企业/表内融资没有被广泛使用，这种融资方式对于PPP项目仍然起着重要作用，而且可以适用于多种情形。比如投标方是唯一发起人（投资人）且有着状态良好的资产负债表时，一般会在新项目中使用企业融资作为其常规的业务模式，又或者当使用表内融资的方式对于降低交易成本更为有效的时候使用。

KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE CONTRACTING AUTHORITY

Advisors：If corporate financing is an option, the Contracting Authority should (as with any form of financing under consideration) ensure it has engaged legal and financial advisers with relevant expertise as early as possible in the procurement process.

Procurement implications：If the Contracting Authority wants bidders to be able to submit the best value financing available, the bid process must allow for a range of financing approaches.

Due diligence：In a project financing, there are usually several parties carrying out due diligence on the PPP Project from the private sector side: the Private Partner, its sponsors and the lenders, as well as all their advisers.

Creditworthiness of Counterparty: A project-financed PPP Project necessarily involves an SPV which is party to carefully structured sub-contract arrangements and financing involving third party lenders, sponsor equity and guarantees or similar support at requisite levels (e.g. of equity or sub-contractor obligations). The SPV's income and expenditure are relatively transparent and its financial robustness assessable.

Price fluctuation between preferred bidder and financial close：Unlike in a project financing, a corporate financed bid may be able to offer a fixed price bid. This certainty may be of particular value to the Contracting Authority, depending on the PPP Project circumstances, and encouraging bidders that are raising third party debt to pre-hedge may not be feasible.

Transparency：There may be less transparency regarding price and cost in a corporate financed bid where the sub-contracting and financing elements are kept within the corporate group. The Contracting Authority should try to obtain a level of transparency equivalent to a project financed bid and in doing so should require a financial model as part of the bid submission so that it has sufficient information to understand the bidder's proposed flow of funds and capital structure.

Addressing poor performance：The Contracting Authority should bear in mind that in a corporate financed structure involving only one sponsor group, poor performance may not realistically be able to be addressed in the same way as it can be in a structure where more than one corporate group is involved, as well as possibly third party lenders.

Flexibility：A corporate financed Private Partner may have greater flexibility when it comes to agreeing significant changes to the scope of work/services under the PPP Contract if it does not have to involve third party lenders in the process.

Changes to documentation：If a PPP Project is being corporate financed and there is no prospect of a refinancing/ introduction of senior debt post commencement, then logically various adjustments should be made to the PPP Contract terms to reflect the structure, parties and documentation involved.

缔约政府部门的主要考虑因素：

咨询顾问：如果企业融资是一种选择，那么缔约政府部门应该（与考虑范围内的其它融资形式一样）保证在采购流程的早期就让专业的法律和财务咨询顾问介入。

采购流程因素：如果缔约政府部门想让投标方提交最物有所值的融资方案，那么招标流程就必须允许多种融资方法。

尽职调查：在项目融资中，私营合作伙伴方面通常会有几方参与PPP项目的尽职调查：私营合作方、其发起人（投资人）和贷款方，以及其咨询顾问。

交易相对方的信用：项目融资的PPP项目必须设立一家SPV，作为签署经过仔细拟定的分包合同的一方，并根据要求程度与第三方贷款方、股权出资方、担保方，或者提供类似的支持（比如股权或分包方义务）。SPV公司的收入和支出都相对透明，且便于评估其财务稳健性。

优选投标定价和融资交割价格之间的变动：与项目融资不同的是，企业融资投标可以提供一个确定的价格。这种确定性对于政府来说，在不同的PPP项目情形中具有特别的意义，而且这还可以鼓励那些无法使用第三方贷款进行预先对冲的投标人。

透明度： 在企业融资投标中，如将分包合同签署和融资因素限制在企业集团内部进行，则会降低定价和成本的透明度。由于缔约政府部门应该尽量获取与项目融资中相同的信息透明度，因此其应该要求投标人提交方案的同时提供一个财务模型，这样缔约政府部门才会有充分的信息去理解投标人建议的资金流动和资本结构。

业绩不佳的解决途径：缔约政府部门应该认识到，与有多家发起人（投资人）（或者可能是第三方贷款方）参与的企业融资架构相比较，在只涉及一家发起人（投资人）的企业融资架构中，业绩不佳的问题可能没有办法与多个发起人项目同样地得到实际解决。

灵活性：在企业融资模式下， 因第三方贷款方并非必须参与PPP项目，因此当PPP合同项下的工作范围/服务出现重大变更时，其调整的灵活性会更大。

对文件的变更：如果PPP项目使用企业融资方案，而且在项目开始之后很可能不会进行再融资/引入优先债务，那么就应该对PPP 合同条款进行合理的调整，以反映出涉及的架构、当事方和文件的特点。