"Energized Finance" - Review

On 7 December 2010, at the King George Palace Hotel in central Athens, KPMG in Greece held the first of its “afternoon events”, titled “Energized Finance: Financing Energy Projects in Challenging Times". The purpose of the event was to inform participants of the state of the Renewable Energy market in Greece, and to present all issues associated with the financing of energy projects in the country.

The event began with a welcome greeting by Mr. Dimitris Rachiotis, Member of the Board of RAE & Supervisor of the Renewable Energy Sources' sector, and continued with a discussion with representatives of the banks. Following this, the legal viewpoints and legal framework was presented by Mrs Virginia Murray, Partner at Watson, Farley & Williams. Finally, representatives from major companies involved in the energy sector, presented their experiences in an especially insightful discussion.

The banks were represented in a panel discussion moderated by Mr. Panagiotis Papastamatiou, President of the Management Board of the Hellenic Wind Energy Association (HWEA).

Participants of the panel discussed the funding models that exist at the moment in the Greek market, for renewable energy sources. The discussion also focused on the liquidity problems that banks are facing, and how they will have to become more creative in order to propose new solutions and ways to deal with this. During the discussion it was also mentioned that banks approach the renewable energy sector as one of the most promising compared to others, and has fewer risks, especially due to feed-in tariffs legislation that guarantees energy prices. Participants of the discussion were:

Ioannis Emiris, Head of Investment Banking and Project Finance, Alpha Bank
Penelope Lazaridou, Deputy General Manager, Large Corporate & Group Structured Finance, Piraeus Bank Group
Constantine G. Stavridis, Division Manager, Project Finance Division, National Bank of Greece S.A.
Kostas Vassiliou, General Manager, Head of Global Corporate Clients and Debt Capital Markets, EFG Eurobank Ergasias
Harry Vovos, Senior Relationship Manager Global Corporate Banking, HSBC Greece

During the next panel discussion, representatives from energy suppliers discussed the reality that exists in the energy market. Most agreed that the situation in Greece does not make investments in the renewable energy sector at all easy. It was also noted that a very significant proportion of projects that have received licenses still have not gone ahead. All participants agreed that green development is the only viable option in terms of investments in the energy sector. The discussion was led by journalist for energy and industry issues from Naftemporiki Newspaper, Mr. Michael Kaitantzidis and participants in the discussion were:

Yanos Michopoulos, General Manager, Vestas
Panos Ninios, CEO, Heliosphera SA
Thanassis Tsantilas, Energy General Director, Rokas Renewables
Ioannis Tsipouridis, CEO, PPC Renewables

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