The comparison of two project financing operations: the Line 5 of the Milan Metro and the London Tube

Abstract

Project financing could be considered as a long-term credit scheme for big projects, such as infrastructure,where the granting of loans is completely based on the cashflow of the project.

Recently, project financing has become an interesting subject to be analysed, both from a legal and economic point of view, because it could represent the best solution to involve private capital to finance public infrastructures, especially after the deep economic and financial crisis of 2008, which was particularly strong for Italy, already in a serious economic situation due to the heavy public debt.

In fact, project financing, together with the other Public Private Partnership contracts, could represent a valid alternative capable of combining, on the one hand, public needs and, on the other, private resources. Nevertheless, there are still few infrastructures in Italy today built through this contract.

This paper aims to analyse the reasons why project financing is less developed in Italy.

So, in this essay will be analysed the risks that the public administration assumes in establishing a relationship with the private sector, as well as the characteristics and potential of project finance.

For this reason, it was considered necessary to compare the Italian project for Line 5 of the Milan Metro with a project of a flagship country in this type of operations: the London Tube in the UK.