Global infrastructure spending continues to accelerate, driven by the green energy transition, hyperscale data centres, and projects ranging from stadiums to light rail and metro systems. Project finance bankers and lawyers were working flat out in 2024, and the pipeline of deals looks just as busy this year.

Bank debt was plentiful, but the demand for financing is so vast that private credit is becoming an increasing focus, and one notable deal last year was data centre hyperscaler CoreWeave raising US$7.5 billion from a group of alternative asset managers and debt funds. Against this background, more banks are building new alliances, pairing their project analysis and debt structuring expertise with strong alternatives investors.

In 2024, MUFG Bank and German asset management firm DWS Group launched a strategic venture designed to enhance their respective capabilities in underwriting and distributing infrastructure and alternative credit investments. And Standard Chartered announced a long-term strategic partnership with alternative asset manager Apollo. Insurance companies are also an important source of infrastructure financing, via the US private placement market, and private ratings are a growing source of business for credit rating agencies.

On the project equity side, many of the same private credit players have long established infrastructure equity funds. Activity is increasing on the secondary market, giving the banks an additional source of M&A advisory revenue, as well as debt financing. Strategic cooperation agreements are also on the rise, often with the backing of governments.

In October, Masdar signed agreements with three Norwegian companies, including a strategic framework agreement with Equinor which aims to enhance collaboration on new ventures, and strengthen the supply chain for current and future initiatives. And in November, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation ( SMBC ) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Saudi Public Investment Fund ( PIF ) focusing on expanding investment opportunities, financing large-scale projects, and facilitating economic cooperation between Japanese companies and PIF. More such agreements can be expected in 2025.

Amid an active project finance market backdrop, Masdar is chosen as the project sponsor of the year – Global. 2024 was yet another year of rapid expansion for Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, and its deals are getting larger. In October, turbine installation was completed at the 476-megawatt ( MW ) Baltic Eagle wind farm in the German Baltic Sea. This was Masdar's first joint venture project with Iberdrola and its first in Germany. Masdar financed its stake with a €488 million ( US$547.96 million ) loan from ABN AMRO, Crédit Agricole CIB, ING Bank, Santander and Siemens Bank - its largest-ever euro-denominated financing. And there are bigger projects to come.

In February, Masdar completed its acquisition of a 49% shareholding in the planned 3-gigawatt ( GW ) Dogger Bank South project, which will be one of the world’s largest, located 100 kilometres ( km ) off the east coast of England. Masdar and German company RWE will make a £11 billion ( US$14.68 billion ) joint investment. During the year, the company completed a tender offer giving it full control of Greece’s Terna Energy, which has been a key player in the renewable energy sector in Southeastern and Central Europe for over two decades. Terna is building one of the largest pumped hydro projects in Europe, the 680MW Amfilochia project in Greece.

Last year, Masdar worked with the Asian Development Bank ( ADB ) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank ( AIIB ) on the debt package for the Bilasuvar and Neftchala solar plants in Azerbaijan. And last October, Masdar signed agreements with three Norwegian companies that reinforced its long-standing collaborations with the Nordic country during an official visit to Norway by Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. In collaboration with Norwegian energy giant, Equinor, Masdar already developed Hywind Scotland, the world’s first offshore floating wind farm, which became operational in 2017. The announcement of a strategic framework agreement with Equinor aims to enhance collaboration on new ventures and strengthen the supply chain for current and future initiatives.

ESG project finance

The ESG project finance house of the year – global award goes to ING Bank, which has put supporting the low-carbon economy at the heart of its wholesale banking activities. The focus is firmly on transition, rather than just lending to companies that are already green, and the bank is supporting clients in steering the most carbon-intensive sectors in its loan portfolio towards achieving global climate goals. In the infrastructure space, last year the bank was involved in a series of high-profile projects. One of the most high profile was the Teesside Net Zero gas-fired power plant which was financed in parallel with the Northern Endurance Partnership aquifer in the North Sea, connected via a 145km pipeline.

The bank is very active in solar power and acted as sole sustainability coordinator for Sonnedix in its €2.5 billion refinancing of a portfolio of solar assets in Spain, Italy and France, and in the growth of the company’s European pipeline, which includes several energy storage and hybrid projects. It also lent on the Iberdrola/Masdar-led Baltic Eagle wind farm in the North Sea. As well, ING is active as a lender on data centres, which have strict sustainability rules on water usage and energy efficiency.

The bank is also supporting more sustainable steel production, and co-arranged as loan for Turkish company Kroman to build an electric arc furnace. Transparency is an important part of the ING strategy, and it publishes a highly-detailed annual Climate Progress Update 2024. The update shows how it engages with clients to help them in the transition to a low-carbon economy. ING recently announced that its climate targets – including its goals to reduce financed emissions in client portfolios as well as in the bank’s own operations – have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative as aligning with the 1.5 degrees Celsius ambition of the Paris agreement.

Project finance

The project finance house of the year – global is SMBC, which in addition to its strength in its Asian home region, was involved in a wide range of infrastructure financings across the Europe, Middle East and Africa ( EMEA ) and Americas regions. The bank was a lender on the Masdar-sponsored Al Ajban solar photovoltaic independent power producer project in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. In Europe, SMBC acted as underwriter, bookrunner, senior mandated lead arranger and hedge provider on the €2.2 billion transaction for DATA4, a leading European data centre operator headquartered in Paris.

In India, SMBC provided GreenCell Mobility with financing for its electric bus project in Uttar Pradesh. This transaction was the first project financing by a Japanese bank in the electric mobility sector in India. In addition to commercial bank debt deals, SMBC works closely with Japanese development agencies and joined Japan International Cooperation Agency on a €240 million facility for the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank Group.

In Latin America, SMBC joined the Japan Bank for International Cooperation ( JBIC ) as lead arranger on a credit line to CAF ( Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina y el Caribe ) to promote sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean. It also worked with the JBIC on two project loan agreements with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. SMBC also had another very active year on commercial bank debt deals in the Middle East. In November, the bank signed a memorandum of understanding with the PIF setting the stage for a stronger collaboration between the two institutions in areas of mutual interest, among them, focusing on expanding investment opportunities, financing large-scale projects, and facilitating economic cooperation between Japanese companies and the PIF.

In Europe, Société Générale is voted as the project finance house of the year. Last November, against the backdrop of the UN climate change conference COP29 in Baku, the bank confirmed its ambition to accelerate its contribution to the environmental transition in line with the proactive environmental, social and governance ( ESG ) policy defined by the bank in its strategic roadmap. The group made major progress this year in the roll-out of its ESG strategy and is stepping up its efforts to support the transition to a low-carbon economy by setting a new €500 billion sustainable finance target by 2030.

In addition to its size and strength as a lender, the bank, on the advisory side, has built up technical expertise on complex projects in new areas, such as on carbon capture and storge ( CCS ), and it was the adviser on the Net Zero Teesside/Northern Endurance Partnership gas-fired power station with carbon capture in the North Sea. In the offshore wind segment, Polish state-owned company PGE ( Polska Grupa Energetyczna ) selected Société Générale as financial adviser to arrange and obtain financing for the construction of the Baltica 2 and 3 offshore wind farms, the largest renewable energy project currently under development in the Baltic Sea, helping diversify Poland’s energy production away from coal. In the digital segment, Société Générale was a mandated lead arranger on one of the largest debt financings ever seen in Europe, the €5.8 billion senior bank facilities, institutional terms loans and the US private placement financing package for XpFibre, the largest fibre-to-the-home provider in France. 

The project finance house of the year in the Middle East is Standard Chartered whose highly experienced project finance team based in Dubai had yet another exceptionally busy year. Some of the most high-profile transactions were the Hassyan Independent Water in Dubai, where it acted as a mandated lead arranger, Shuaa Solar in Dubai, and the Albihouth waste-to-energy project in Abu Dhabi, where Standard Chartered acted as pre-bid lead bank as well as a mandated lead arranger and green loan coordinator on the US$515 million loan.

The bank is also busy with the huge requirements of the Saudi wind and solar programme, and was a mandated lead arranger on the Al-Ghat and Waad Al-Shamal wind financings. It was also structuring bank and a mandated lead arranger on the US$2.47 billion financing of the Saudi PIF 4 solar projects, totalling 5.5GW.

In the transport sector, Standard Chartered acted as financial adviser and lead arranger in the Hafeet Rail financing. The railway will connect Oman to the UAE rail network and is an important government-to-government collaboration. The recently announced a long-term strategic partnership with alternative asset manager Apollo to support and accelerate financing for infrastructure, clean transition and renewable energy globally, leveraging the leading origination and distribution capabilities of both firms.

Standard Chartered is also selected as the project finance house of the year in Africa. Last year, the bank advised Rio Tinto, a 53% shareholder in the Simfer joint venture with Chinalco and Baowu Steel, on the mining, rail and port infrastructure project for the transport of iron ore from the Simandou mine westwards to the coast ( a project shared with the separate Winning Consortium Simandou mining concession ). Standard Chartered was the sole strategic and financial adviser to Rio Tinto for the Simandou mega-project, in which Rio Tinto is investing US$6.2 billion of the total US$15 billion total requirement. The bank also acted on both the buyside and sellside on a number of high-profile merger and acquisition deals in the Nigerian oil and gas sector. It was the sellside adviser to Scatec, as TotalEnergies acquired a 51% stake in an 800MW-plus hydropower platform in Uganda, Rwanda and Malawi. Standard Chartered is also highly active at the government level, as exemplified by its arranging of a Republic of Senegal financing for the agricultural sector covered by the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, which houses the World Bank group guarantee platform.

SMBC is likewise voted as the project finance house in Latin America on the back of another extremely busy year across the region in advisory and lending. It was involved in deals in natural gas and renewable energy sectors, as well as further strengthening its strong position in the transportation sector. It acted as the financial adviser on Autopistas del Nordeste road refinancing in Colombia, which included peso tranches as well as US dollar bank debt and a private placement.

SMBC was also the Colombian peso synthetic lender on the Troncales del Magdalena I and II 5G toll roads. The synthetic component of the loan attracted liquidity from international banks and provides a template for future deals across the region. In Mexico, SMBC was the structuring bank on the Guadalajara Light Train Line 4 ( sponsored by Mota-Engil Mexico and CRRC ) financing denominated in pesos. The five billion pesos was provided by three banks – SMBC, BBVA and Banobras. Also in Mexico, the bank was a joint bookrunner on the Mayakan gas pipeline expansion.

For the Oasis de Atamaca solar and storage project in Chile, SMBC was a joint bookrunner and green coordinator. And for the US$2.5 billion loan to support the expansion of the Centinela copper mine ( in which Marubeni has a 30% stake ), the bank was a mandated lead arranger, and facility agent for JBIC and Kexim. And on the advisory side, SMBC was the buyside adviser to Ashmore Group in its acquisition of Ergon Peru, providing small-scale solar systems to rural areas.

The winner of the project finance house of the year in US/Canada is MUFG Ban, which was once again at the forefront of implementing innovative bespoke infrastructure financings – while also using its balance sheet to support projects across the power, data centre, transportation, and oil and gas sectors. One highlight of the year was its mandated lead arranger role in the financing for the Stonepeak acquisition of a 50% stake in Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind. It also featured as an active global private placement agent on the US private placement for French fibre-to-the-home provider XpFibre.

Supporting Japanese clients around the world is a key role, and it was also a lender alongside JBIC for a battery plant being built by Toyota in North Carolina. In Canada, MUFG Bank was a financial adviser to the planned Cedar LNG floating facility, a joint venture between Pembina Pipeline Corporation and the Haisla Nation. In December, MUFG Bank and German asset management firm DWS Group ( listed but still majority owned by Deutsche Bank ) launched a strategic venture designed to enhance their respective capabilities in underwriting and distributing infrastructure and alternative credit investments. The parties are initially targeting US$1 billion of infrastructure and project finance transaction volume per year.

Law firms

In the law firm category, the winner for Latin America is Cuatrecasas. With its origins in Spain, the law firm took the decision a decade ago to set up its own network in Latin America, taking a different route to many firms that signed alliances with local houses. Cuatrecasas has since emerged as a leading player on many of the most high-profile infrastructure projects in Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile. The focus is both on supporting local clients, as well as international companies, and the firm has built up strong relationships with Chinese companies making large investments in areas such as electricity generation and transmission.

One notable deal last year for Cuatrecasas was advising lenders on the acquisition of Minera Centinela's existing seawater pumping infrastructure and on building a new parallel system under a Boot ( build, own, operate and transfer ) structure in Chile. The firm has been active on many transport projects in Peru, including the Bogota Metro and electric bus fleet financings; and, in Chile last year, it advised Transicion Energetica on supplying electric buses to mining companies. The law firm also advised Macquarie Asset Management on the acquisition of a stake in the Mayakan natural gas pipeline in Mexico, which includes a partnership with Engie to build the 700km Cuxtal II pipeline running parallel to the existing system.

The law firm of the year in EMEA is Norton Rose Fulbright. In addition to its strong presence in the renewable energy space, the firm has also played a prominent role in the UK government’s CCS projects. The firm advised Equinor on its participation in the Northern Endurance Partnership carbon transportation and storage joint venture with BP and TotalEnergies. As part of the work with Equinor, it also advised the international energy company on its joint venture with bp to build Net Zero Teesside Power, the UK’s first gas-fired power plant with integrated carbon capture. Norton Rose Fulbright advised PGE on the €3 billion financing of the PGE part of the construction of the 1.5GW Baltica 2 offshore wind farm located off the Polish coast in the Baltic Sea. And as part of a series of high-profile deals in the Middle East, it represented the lenders on the Hassyan Independent Water Project in Dubai, as well as a series of projects in Saudi Arabia. The firm also represented Winning Consortium Simandou on the iron ore mega-project in Guinea, which also involves railway and port construction.

The US/Canada law firm of the year is Milbank. The firm has one of the largest and most experienced group of infrastructure lawyers globally and in North America. Its global project energy infrastructure finance group once again advised on a long series of transactions in the energy sector. It has also firmly established itself in the data centre segment. Milbank advised the lenders on the Woodfibre LNG export project in British Colombia, featuring a large-scale natural gas treatment plant powered by hydro energy. Milbank also advised the lenders in connection with Stonepeak acquiring a 50% stake in the Dominion Energy Coastal Virginia Offshore windfarm. Likewise, the firm advised the sponsor Switch on its US$4.5 billion project debt package for the Switch Hyperscale Development in Tahoe-Reno, Nevada.

Rating agencies

The rating agency of the year award for the Americas goes to Moody's Ratings, which not only has an exceptionally strong position in public ratings for infrastructure companies, municipalities and project bonds, but is also a leading provider of private ratings in the US private placement market. Early in 2024, Valia Energia, Mexico's largest private energy generation platform, issued the first project bonds in the Rule 144A market since 2020. The US$530 million senior secured notes were rated Baa3. It also rated the Fiemex bond issuance, whose proceeds were used to partly financed the Mexican government’s acquisition of Iberdrola gas-fired power stations. Infrastructure issues make a up a significant part of the US private placement market, where most offerings are investment grade, appealing to insurance company investors as well as players such as private credit. The continuously monitored private ratings are distributed on a private basis via an electronic platform to small groups of lenders.

In EMEA, the rating agency of the year is Fitch Ratings. There were a number of high-profile bond offerings out of the UK last year, including Getlink ( formerly known as Eurotunnel ). In a research piece, Fitch compared Getlink’s notes structural subordination with that of Gatwick Airport Finance ( BB/stable ). Fitch also rates Heathrow Funding Limited and, last May, affirmed its class A bonds at A- and class B bonds at BBB. Out of the Middle East, last May, Fitch rated the GreenSaif Pipelines senior secured notes A+, as the BlackRock-led consortium came to the market with a US$3 billion offering of conventional and Islamic tranches to refinance the acquisition of a stake in the Aramco gas pipeline network in Saudi Arabia. In addition to rating actions, Fitch offers investors well-regarded sectoral research in its non-rating action commentaries.

For the complete list of winning institutions - global please click here. 

For more information about the awards gala scheduled for July 2 2025, please contact us at celebrate@theasset.com.