Crunching the numbers
The Proximo Intelligence H1 2023 League Tables are out and while Japanese and French banks continue to dominate the global project finance market, there are still a few surprises at the granular level.
Proximo Intelligence is pleased to share the results of its project and infrastructure finance league tables for the first half of 2023. The report – available for subscribers – looks at the biggest lenders and mandated lead arrangers of the past six months, both by sector and regionally.
Natixis has made it into the top 10 for generic infrastructure finance and pure project finance for H1 2023. In a list of what constitutes the project finance Usual Suspects – French and Japanese project lenders dominate – Natixis was arguably the Kayser Soze in the past; largely unseen but present in the background via a policy of taking on advisory business but only lending to its wider corporate relationship clients. That policy has clearly become more flexible.
As for the rest of the cast in the global rankings, the positions have changed but the names remain the same – although MUFG has really beefed up its volume taking first position in both generic infrastructure finance and pure project finance with a 5.3% and 6.1% share of global lending respectively, and also hitting the number one spot in both categories for mandated lead arranger volume.
The bank rankings in some of the regional and sector league tables get more diverse – although many are still dominated by Japanese and French banks. In Asia, Bank OCBC NISP makes it into the top 10 for infrastructure finance MLAs and pure project finance MLAs, along with Westpac. And in Europe, UK lenders NatWest and Barclays also make the top 10, along with German banks Nord/LB and KfW IPEX for project finance and infrastructure finance respectively.
But in terms of regions, the big surprise (or perhaps constant anomaly is more correct) is always North America – only two US banks, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan, make the top 10 MLA list. Why? Many US lenders have long struggled to match the tenors that European, Asian, and even Canadian banks can offer in project finance – and for long-lived infrastructure assets, tenor is key. In addition, many do not take MLA roles – for example BofA, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo all often lend alongside their tax equity or investment banking operations which constitute their focus.
Latin America has produced a more genuine surprise. Of the Spanish banks, which have the largest generic foreign investment bank footprint in the region, only Santander features in the top 10, with French banks – Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas – taking three of the top five positions in the league table.
On the sector side, French and Japanese banks take seven flights of the top 10 global ranking for project finance in power and renewables – only HSBC, Santander and Nord/LB feature alongside banks from those nations. Within that top 10 MUFG retains the number one spot that it held at end of 2022 (see Project and Infrastructure Finance Data Report 2022), while Societe Generale has climbed from fifth to second. Of all the lenders Santander had the biggest project finance ranking drop in power and renewables, falling from second at end of 2022 to fifth in H1 2023.
These are just some of the highlights from the report, which also complements the Project Finance Research report 2023. All the reports cited in this article are available to subscribers through this link.
If you are not a subscriber, you can request a copy of the H1 League Tables for 2023 by filling out the form here.
