Using project bonds to fund South Africa's infrastructure development

Sithole, Londa Leon Zinhle

Using project bonds to fund South Africa's infrastructure development

Master Thesis

2016

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Research of GSB

Faculty

Faculty of Commerce

Abstract

The growing use of project bonds in funding infrastructure globally deserves attention. Although primarily dominated by the developed markets, emerging markets such as Latin America and Asia have also been successful in using project bonds to finance their infrastructure projects. The project bond market in South Africa remains insignificant, with only a few episodic issuances in the last decade. Given the size of the country's capital markets, institutional investor base and experience with project finance transactions; one would expect the country to have a sizeable project bond market. This paper aims to investigate whether or not South Africa has the capacity to use project bonds to fund its infrastructure development. As government finances take strain, and as bank funding becomes unavailable due to Basel III, South Africa will need to look to the capital markets for the funding of its ambitious infrastructure plan. This paper finds that South Africa should begin to use project bonds and capital markets to fund its infrastructure development. However, more needs to be done on the regulatory and legal side to ensure that the country continues to attract foreign investment for infrastructure development.

Keywords

Development Finance

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