With continued strong demand for Australian infrastructure exposure, borrowers have been able to extend loan tenors in recent years, particularly for refinancings.

The share of loans by volume for Australian infrastructure-related borrowers with tenors of seven years or greater have steadily increased to 31% in 2018 from 24% in 2016. During that period, the proportion of seven-year-or-longer loans for refinancing increased to 63.7% in 2018, compared to just 12% in 2016.

Japanese banks recently seem to have become the most eager to provide long-term funding for Australian infrastructure.

In 2017, there was only one Australian infrastructure loan deal syndicated exclusively to Japanese lenders - the 15-year ninja refinancing for Aquasure-owned Victorian desalination plant. Last year, there were six samurai or ninja deals for Australian infrastructure, all with tenors of at least 10-years and all for refinancing. These include loans for Hallet 4 Wind Farm and Waterloo Wind Farm with tenors of 12-years and 11.5-years, respectively.

As Debtwire reported, Australia Pacific LNG is currently in the market for an AUD 3.2bn 10-year loan arranged by JPMorgan to refinance a project facility at its coal and natural gas project in Queensland.

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Jason Huang-Jones APAC Data Manager Debtwire