The lender’s engineer: friend not foe

Words: Christos Kolliatsas, hydro and renewables director, Mott MacDonald

With the potential exception of being a referee or a traffic warden, for the most part, a lender’s engineer or lender’s technical advisor (LTA) may be one of the most polarising professions available. And yet, a professional and competent LTA can bring significant value to a project, save a sponsor millions of pounds and can be personally rewarding.

First things first – why do we need an LTA?

The need for an LTA stems directly from the involvement of lenders on a project. There are a number of ways of financing a project, one of which is using debt financing. Depending on the level of financing required from the lenders, there will be different types of products that satisfy the funding needs of the sponsors. In this article, we will be looking at project finance or non-recourse finance as it is also known.