ADB works to ease risks for investors in infrastructure deals

Singapore

PRIVATE investors remain averse to taking commercial and political risks in infrastructure projects, so multilateral development banks (MDBs) have to work a lot behind the scenes to cajole them to take part in these projects.

Michael Barrow, director-general of private-sector operations at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), said at a panel discussion on Tuesday that the ADB works with commercial banks to come up with the right mix of loan structure and tenor that the commercial lenders are comfortable with; it also provides guarantees for the tenor that banks are otherwise unable to take on because of capital ratio requirements.