Critical risk factors of the project finance loan spread in the infrastructure sector: Experience from the Asean countries

Abstract

This paper finds that in ASEAN-4, the micro loan characteristics: loan amount and LIBOR whilst the macro characteristics: inflation, net export and GDP growth influence the loan spread in the project finance. However, simultaneously at the country level, the determinants of the loan spread are distinctive to each country’s infrastructure industry characteristic. The paper’s main contribution relates to the determinants of the project finance loan spread at the country level and regional level, ASEAN-4. The purpose of this paper is to fathom the critical risk factors behind the project finance loan pricing differential across the ASEAN-4 countries. Hence, the policy makers, project developers and lenders can have a better understanding of the drivers behind the project finance loan spread pricing. The study adopted an ordinary least square (OLS) regression methodology and collected data from ASEAN-4 countries consisting of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand.