DTW Capital is one of Australia’s leading independent debt advisory firms with a specific focus on raising private sector debt capital. We have advised on or raised in excess of A$8 billion term debt capital for our valued clients.
With a high level of industry specialisation, a comprehensive understanding of the suite of domestic and offshore financing alternatives available to our clients across the bank, alternate investment community and capital markets. With a successful track record of innovation, DTW is committed to delivering demonstrable value to its clients.
Sector focus: social and economic infrastructure, government-supported entities/assets, higher education, commercial real estate, corporate debt and wholesale providers of mortgage and consumer finance.
Our approach is execution agnostic, be it tenor, debt ranking or market – our focus is solely on identifying and delivering the best solution for our clients.
We have developed a deep understanding of the nuanced bank and institutional investor appetite for these sectors. With a proven track record in financial advisory, credit structuring and arranging, we create enduring, mutually beneficial relationships between our clients and their financiers.
Our issuer clients are local – capital providers and markets are global, requiring a detailed understanding of domestic and offshore debt markets, and investor appetite.
The firm’s clients are our partners and our greatest asset. Our clients include leading Australian ASX20 listed companies, private sector asset owners and sponsors together with pre-eminent local and global institutional investors.
WHAT WE DO
Transaction Analysis, Structuring and Execution
DTW structures and delivers innovative, executable financing solutions, which optimise the client’s financial outcome, by matching it to the most efficient funding source.
Financial Advisory
We help clients assess debt capacity, market conditions and optimal execution. Once a debt funding strategy has been determined we guide them through the process of implementation from ‘cradle to grave’. This work encompasses private and public sector clients including a clutch of advisory assignments in the higher education sector, for Monash University, the University of Technology Sydney, and Edith Cowan University.
Commercial Real Estate and Structured Finance
DTW Develops and delivers innovative financing solutions spanning commercial real estate, residential mortgages, consumer finance and bank receivables.
Portfolio Optimisation
The depth and frequency of our interaction with lenders and investors means we are well placed to identify, advise on and execute “buy” and “sell” mandates for our institutional, fixed income clients to facilitate portfolio optimisation strategies.
Financial Guaranty and Specialty Insurances
DTW has a high level of financial guarantee expertise and experience. In 2019 we executed a Co-operation Agreement with NYSE-listed monoline insurer, Assured Guaranty(Assured), whereby DTW Capital is the exclusive Australasian origination agent for the provision of Assured’s financial guaranty products. The successful completion of a credit enhanced financing for the Port of Brisbane with Assured Guaranty bears testimony to this.
Infrastructure Finance
Working with leading sponsors and global capital providers to deliver tailored long-term debt financing solutions for bids, acquisitions and refinancing processes, with a particular focus on PPP’s and economic infrastructure such as ports, airports and roads.
Public Private Partnerships Expertise
DTW is the pre-eminent arranger of long-term, fixed-rate, natural A$ institutional debt for Australian greenfield infrastructure projects.
Apart from OSARS West (~A$600m successfully closed) and North East Link, in recent times we have arranged over A$4.2b in commitments (fully credit approved) including:
- ~$1.2b for SRU 1 and 2 PPP projects in Victoria (projects withdrawn by State after bid submission, alternate procurement chosen, projects broken up); and
- ~$1.2b for New Footscray Hospital PPP in Victoria (unsuccessful bidder, but we believe we were the only consortium which included full term debt commitments). The bulk of this debt was also procured at the height of COVID-19, with an initial bid date of 9 July 2020.
- ~$275m full-term (32 year) fixed-rate debt for John Laing’s bid for Flinders University HMRB Building (unsuccessful bidder).
While the competitiveness of long-term debt, which generally is more expensive, against short-term mini-perm solutions will always be a subjective assessment, we continue to advocate for its use for the following reasons:
- Diversification of funding sources – particularly important for large PPP transactions
- Access to a global institutional investor group which is constantly participating in, and assessing, infrastructure and PPP projects all around the world
- Targeting the small group of offshore investors who are able to deliver natural A$ funding prevents the introduction of foreign currency risk or swap line usage costs
- Elimination of refinancing risk for the relevant portion of debt
- In the current market, with relative lows in base rates, full-term, fixed rate debt is historically cheap, particularly for government sponsored projects
- Refinancing risk includes 3 major elements: base rate risk; credit spread risk, and liquidity/event risk. In relation to the latter, mini-perm structures generally assume 1 – 5 refinancings during the life of a PPP concession. The GFC and recent COVID-19 induced market liquidity issues clearly demonstrate that access to markets at competitive (or modelled rates, typically constant through the life of a concession), should not always be assumed (although, in fairness, high quality projects will usually have access to markets, albeit possibly at rates in excess of modelled assumptions).
DTW is the most active participant in this segment of the market, and we have accurate, up-to-date views on investor appetite, pricing and terms.
There is also significant demand from investors to participate in PPP refinancings.
