Clifford Chance
The new 'Growth Decree': another set of new opportunities for Project Bonds in Italy
25 June 2012
On 15 June 2012, the Council of Ministers approved a set of urgent measures to implement part of the so-called "Agenda for sustainable Growth" (the "Decree"). The Decree addresses the need to foster competitiveness of Italian enterprise, to increase demand and to stimulate business growth. Among the new initiatives of the Decrees are the following: (i) to increase opportunities for Italian non-listed companies to access the capital markets (for example by introducing the so-called "mini bonds") and (ii) to increase investments in infrastructure generally and project bonds.
This client briefing focuses on project bonds, while our separate client briefing discusses the other measures to expand access to capital markets.
For the sake of clarity, Italian Project Bonds are a separate (but not incompatible) instrument from the so-called European Project Bonds currently being studied and introduced in the context of the Project Bond Initiative. European Project Bonds are meant to address a similar (although not identical) European need to create forms of financing for public infrastructure projects that will attract private capital, so as to meet the financing requirements for the European infrastructure investments to be made in the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy (currently estimated to require approximately Euro 1,500-2,000 billion) and are actually security and credit enhancement mechanisms provided by the European Investment Bank (within a risk sharing system between European Investmenet Bank and the EU Commission) in relation to notes issued by project companies that implement infrastructure projects in the energy, telecommunication and transport sectors, in the context of the Connecting Europe Facility. Please note that the final version of the Decree has not been published yet and therefore such Decree remains subject to amendments also by virtue of relevant implementing law.
