COURSE NUMBER: MBA217.11
This course is cross-listed with the EWMBA Program.
COURSE TITLE: Energy and Infrastructure Project Finance
UNITS OF CREDIT: 1
INSTRUCTOR: Allan Marks
E-MAIL ADDRESS: ATMarks@milbank.com
CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION): http://bspace.berkeley.edu
MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Sundays, 9:00AM – 5:00PM (3/3 & 3/17)
Please note the unusual format of this course, which
meets all day on two Sundays (3/3 & 3/17). You must attend both sessions in
their entirety in order to earn a passing grade.
PREREQUISITE(S): None
CLASS FORMAT: Mixture of lecture, cases and seminar-style
class discussion
REQUIRED READINGS: Benjamin C. Esty,
Modern Project Finance: A Casebook (Wiley, 2003) ISBN-10: 0- 471-43425-6
(paperback)
BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Take home final exam
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: This course
will explore the key commercial, legal, economic and policy issues affecting
the development and financing of infrastructure projects, with special emphasis
on practical concerns related to investments in alternative energy and other
power generation facilities and transportation facilities. Many of these topics
will be raised in the context of comparative, real-world case studies of
different types of energy and infrastructure projects. Issues specific to
cross-border or international transactions will be discussed as relevant. By
the end of the course, within the specific context of mobilizing capital to
meet the growing demand for clean power and critical infrastructure, students
should gain an understanding of the following general concepts:
how commercial and financial
interests, regulation, private contracts and market factors dynamically
interrelate;
how to optimize/analyze financing
structures, leverage and investor return;
how various project risks are
identified, allocated, mitigated and priced, and the roles of contracts, hedges
and insurance products in managing risk;
how regulatory incentives and
public policy choices either curtail or facilitate particular investment
opportunities, often in unintended ways; and
how finance plays a role in moving
new energy technologies from lab to market, from small-scale deployments to
large-scale, and across national borders.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Allan Marks is a partner in the Global Project Finance
Department of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP and is based in the Firm’s Los Angeles office.
As part of a broad corporate and finance practice, he has represented companies
involved in power, oil and gas, transportation, telecommunications, technology,
real estate, and other industries. He is regularly ranked as one of the top
project finance attorneys in the United States. Mr. Marks routinely represents
developers, investors, lenders, and underwriters in the development and
financing of complex infrastructure projects worldwide, with special expertise
in the energy, telecommunications and transportation sectors. He has
participated in numerous project financings, acquisitions, restructurings,
securities offerings and private placements for a variety of sophisticated
institutional clients. He speaks and publishes frequently on cross-border
financing issues, infrastructure investments, renewable energy, deregulation
and emerging markets.
Mr. Marks has worked on transactions throughout Asia, Europe
and the Americas.
Allan Marks received his B.A. in International Studies from
The Johns Hopkins University and his J.D. from the University of California,
Berkeley. He has been an adjunct lecturer at University of California Berkeley
School of Law and the Universidad Panamericana in
Mexico City. He is the founding co-chair of the California State Bar Subsection
on Public Private Infrastructure and co-chair of the North American
Infrastructure Law Forum and has been a member of the Energy Steering Committee
of the Institute of the Americas and the U.S./Mexico Aspen Global Forum, among
other professional organizations.