He sees great opportunities to support the climate transition and strengthen competitiveness in the Nordic Region and the EU.
“It is a trend shift we see in many markets where we are active. However, the shift is particularly strong in Sweden, where we have gone from a previously hesitant attitude to a more positive dialogue about PPPs. There is now an increased political interest in private infrastructure financing,” says Joel Skagerberg.
PPPs mean that a private company or consortium is assigned the task of financing, building and operating a public utility for a long time. The idea is that this will lead to higher quality and lower total costs over the project’s entire life cycle.
The need for new infrastructure is most evident in the transport sector in Sweden and the Nordic countries. However, major investments in energy production and electricity grids are also needed to support the transition to a carbon-neutral future.
Increased interest in PPPs is not the only change that will help realise important infrastructure projects. Banks and financial institutions can also develop new financing models.
“We have been involved in developing a new financing structure together with a customer in Denmark. The aim was to support renewable energy financing in the construction phase,” says Joel Skagerberg, adding that this innovative arrangement received much attention.
In short, the arrangement means the customer can co-finance several projects in different phases within the same financing framework. Normally, banks finance each project individually.
SEB has half of its project finance operations in the Nordic region and half in other markets, mainly in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands. The international experience provides opportunities to transfer lessons learned between the different markets.