Lender identity, lender equity and project finance debt mandates

This thesis examines market reactions to project finance debt mandate announcements from mine developers listed on the Canadian and Australian equity markets. The thesis documents a significant mean (median) 3-day abnormal return of 5.0% (3.8%) for Australian sample and 4.2% (2.4%) for Canadian sample, consistent with screening benefits and information transfer from private lenders to equityholders. Daily market reactions are stronger for debt mandate announcements than for project finance approvals consistent with screening signals, a greater reduction in information asymmetry and/or the ‘retention of the option to wait’. Cross-sectional tests indicate that debt mandates where lenders hold equity positions in the borrower experience higher abnormal returns, suggesting lender equity conveys important signals of information asymmetry reduction. In terms of lender identity tests, mandates from mining partners exhibit higher market reactions, suggesting that mining partners have a superior screening ability. Among non-bank lenders, mandates from investment funds exhibit lower market reactions consistent with the last resort theory and suggest that investment funds are likely to be akin to the lender of last resort for MEE’s.

Author dc:creator

• Altansukh, Lkhagvajav

Statement dc:rights

• info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
• © 2024 Lkhagvajav Altansukh
• au.edu.uts.lib/cph

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/183278

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:opus.lib.uts.edu.au:10453/183278