Debt Advisory

Debt Advisory assists corporates in sourcing the appropriate type of funding, and at the best terms

• New Debt – We can introduce clients to a wide range of funders:  senior debt, mezz. debt, project finance, leveraged finance, acquisition or bridging finance, as well as other avenues: royalties & streaming, offtake advances from Traders, and derivatives. We can also manage the complete debt raising process.
• Debt refinance – Let us do the negotiations, as well as introducing competing offers.
• Ongoing Debt Management – We can manage your complete debt programme: contact with bankers/ agents/ waiver requests/ quarterly reporting of historic DSCR and fwd looking LLCR, and many other metrics that funders will be monitoring.

Since 2016 we have been involved in > AUD$2billion of fund raising. We’ve been through credit many times and already know the questions that will be asked, and the unique/ complex financial modelling requirements, and legal documentation. All Sectors/All Industries. Some of the ways we can assist include, 

• • Set up your data room
  • Create the financial model, or take your operational model and add typical debt calculations to ascertain debt capacity
  • Debt Term Sheet negotiation and Legal documentation negotiation
  • Risk Transfer Analysis for PF non-recourse transactions
  • Writing all documents required by the Lender
  • Organising all DD required (Technical, Legal, Market, Insurance, Risk, Social Governance & Environmental, FX, Hedging, etc)
  • Completing all CP’s to financial close

We are ex- Structured Finance Investment Bankers now working on the “other side of the ledger”, for Corporates.
– Rock Director Jonathan Ballantyne was Head of Project Finance for Westpac, Australia, and thereafter a Director at NAIF.
– Rock Director Emma McPherson, worked in Project Finance at Bank of America and BNP Paribas for > 13 years.  

Mining/Energy/ Infra. finance – Does your project need funding? 
We have a wide network of funders, with appetite for various risk levels/ stages of life in a project. From early stage/ in construction/ no revenue/ no JORC/ no BFS, to a producing asset.. Funders range from non- bank lenders, to offtake advance, royalties, asset finance. We also have funders across traditional Project Finance, Acquisition finance, export credit, etc, for established businesses.  We work from our clients office (or mine-site). We sit next to the mine team, or the port team, or the infra. team. We go to site and we ask questions- we want to understand the key drivers and red flags for the project, so we can best match funders in our network with the risk profile of the project.  Some past clients below

Copper, Bauxite, Tungsten…Press releases from three clients we have raised funding for:

Some of our recent mandates in the Resources/Infra/Energy space

• Tungsten / Debt Advisory – EQ Resources Ltd (ASX:EQR) 2021-2023: Rock secured $10m royalty funding for EQR, which funded the move from processing low-grade stockpile to mining from the open-pit-where grades are circa 8 times higher. First ore from the OP was in July 2023, which delivered a near  8 times uplift to revenue
• Copper-Gold Mine/ Debt Advisory – Chinova Resources, 2019-2020. Rock secured $130m of debt offers for Chinova to develop their next project, the Osborne EML. Opening 4 new deposits (3 Starra and 1 Kulthor) to feed the Osborne Processor for another 7 years.
• Bauxite & Marine Infra / Debt Advisory  – Metro Mining Ltd (ASX:MMI) ,2018-2019. Rock secured a $47m loan from Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) to purchase a new shiploader.
• Energy & Rail & Port Infra./ Thermal coal/ Project Finance, 2016-2018. 2 years at Adani Australia, working on the largest coal mine & rail project in Australia. Rock was engaged to assist in procuring NAIF financing of $900m. This included financial modelling build and ownership (across the three sub assets of mine, above rail, and below rail). Also included BFS review (all 38 chapters), to liaising with NAIF and answering all their DD. Rock was the point person dealing with ECA re funding of A$1.2 billion for the 382km railway.
• Solar Renewables / Project Finance, Adani, 2018.Worked on the financing of Adani‘s two solar projects in Australia: created financial models, wrote pitchbooks and met with lenders.
• Coking Coal / Valuations, 2014-2015. Engaged by BMA (BHP Mitsubishi Alliance) conducting valuations on their coking coal mines in Bowen Basin, Australia
• Zinc / Corporate Finance,2014. Consulting to Glencore staff at their global HQ in Baar, Switzerland in Corporate Finance and Valuations.
• Coking coal / Valuations, 2013-2014. Created valuation models for Guildford Coal/now TerraCom Limited (ASX: TER) re their Mongolian coking coal mines (working in both Brisbane & Mongolia).
• Gold/ Valuations, 2012-2019. Created valuation models for Evolution Mining across all 5 gold mines and also created a company-wide valuation model.
• Port Infra. & Coal /Project Finance,2011-2012. Engaged by Aquila Resources working on WICET coal terminal application. Also, financial modelling and project financing of their Bowen Basin coking coal mines (Eagle Downs, Washpool, Isaac Plains)
• Coal / Financial Modelling, 2009.  Audited and rebuilt a valuation model for Resource Generation’s coal mine in South Africa.
  

Mining Finance- We learn more in the field than behind a desk..

Project Finance Transactions :