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With only one offshore wind farm in operation today, the U.S. still lags behind the offshore wind market pioneers in Europe. But the balance could soon be addressed, according to S&P Global Ratings.

A recent report states that improving efficiency may increase the source’s competitiveness in the energy mix – which means American offshore wind could be set for significant expansion. As a result, an aggregated project pipeline of over 26 gigawatts (GW) of capacity is piquing investor interest.

Aneesh Prabhu, senior director at S&P Global Ratings, says: “There’s tremendous in

vestor interest due to the complementary nature of offshore wind generation with its onshore counterpart.”

The full report is available here. This story was featured in Recharge, PFI, North American Windpower, Environmental Finance, Energy Watch, reNews and Institutional Investing Infrastructure.

Writing in the 7th edition of Commodities Magazine, David Bischof, Deputy Director, Finance for Development at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), discusses export finance’s low credit risk profile and the importance of the ICC’s Trade Register.

The Trade Register is an authoritative, data-driven source and benchmark for trade finance and export finance-related credit risk data. Some may question the need to regularly collect information pertaining to the default and credit-risk profile of trade and export finance products. However, these figures are especially important when it comes to engaging in discussions with regulators and standard-setters.

Read the full article on p28 of Commodities Magazine.

Speaking to El Confidencial, Jesús Sáez, Natixis’ Head of Debt Capital Markets for Spain and Portugal, discusses the concern that there are disorderly asset sales aggravating a possible liquidity problem in fixed income bonds.

“What there is in pricing in fixed income in this current period and in the current circumstances is, among other things, lack of liquidity, without a doubt”, explains Sáez. “Because liquidity is not a variable that only has to do with the existent necessary funds, but it has to do with the possibility that a market agent finds possibilities to get hold of assets (offers) or get rid of assets (demands) with relative ease when he wants to make a decision to take a position or leave a position. And that does not exist now”, he adds.

To read the full article, please click here.

Europe is the centre of the global offshore wind sector, accounting for 80% of the world’s total capacity at the end of 2018. Yet while the region’s offshore growth is accelerating, emerging market trends could reduce returns. In a recent report, S&P Global Ratings’ Pierre Georges and Massimo Schiavo examine what this means for the credit quality of the world’s largest offshore wind participants.

“The past decade saw significant value creation in the offshore wind sector,” commented the analysts, “supported by favourable pricing mechanisms, lower cost of capital, and operators’ excellent execution.” This allowed European offshore developers to achieve markedly lower-than-expected construction and operating costs. However, as technology matures and government attitudes shift, this trend may change.

To read the full report, please follow this link. Following Moorgate’s outreach, the story was featured in TXF, Proximo, Responsible Investor and Renews.biz.

Speaking to Il Sole 24 Ore, Dirk Schumacher, Natixis’ Head of European Macro Research, explains how Eurozone GDP will likely decline by 2.5% in 2020.

However, there is room for a recovery of a similar size in 2021 by virtue of commitments made by central banks and governments which at the moment equate to around 10% of GDP.

Read the full article in the print edition of Il Sole 24 Ore (20th March 2020).

Speaking to CincoDías, Jesús Sáez, Natixis’ Head of Debt Capital Markets in Spain and Portugal, discusses the impact of coronavirus on the Spanish debt capital markets.

“The situation is unprecedented. Government bonds have always been the refuge. Now they are the problem again,” says Sáez. “Big funds don’t want anything, not even what is considered ultra-secure, just liquidity,” he adds.

Read the full article here

This week’s Budget 2020 “may represent the beginning of an almost unprecedented infrastructure spend across the UK,” said Joest Bunse, associate director for EMEA infrastructure at S&P Global Ratings.  The Budget, together with an upcoming National Infrastructure Strategy, is set to transform the way infrastructure is planned and delivered in the UK.

Bunse highlighted how environmental and social considerations played a key role in shaping the budget measures, stating that “this mirrors the shift we are observing in the investment community towards applying an ESG lens to capital allocation.”

This story featured in IPE Real Assets and Partnerships Bulletin.

In an interview with Property EU, Emmanuel Verhoosel – Natixis’ Global Head of Real Estate and Hospitality – explains how the bank’s colour-coded system to prioritise green transactions across all sectors that it lends to, including real estate, is paying off.

With a green transaction, “the banker is more likely to win the business, because the cost of capital allocated to it is lower. So bankers naturally aim to look for green transactions because the likelihood is they will win those in the market because they have a competitive edge”, says Verhoosel.

To read the full article, please click here.

Speaking to Petroleum Economist, Joel Hancock – Lead Energy Analyst at Natixis CIB – discusses the impact of coronavirus on oil demand and price, and what it means for OPEC and its main OPEC+ partner Russia.

In the near term, for the second quarter “OPEC+ will have to announce a cut just to support the market and try to put a floor under prices at maybe $50/bl, because, at that point, we are looking at relatively severe budgetary pain for the Middle Eastern and north African oil exporters”, explains Hancock.

To read the full article, please click here and here.