IIL1016 | Investments and Infrastructure Laws

Infrastructure projects are a special type of business which requires large amounts of investments  and over a longer time period and generates substantial returns. Infrastructure projects constitute the backbone of an economy.

The course will cover introduction to equity capital and how they can be obtained, foreign capital that can come into India, introduction to debt capital and financing, types of instruments and typical financing framework that one expects to see in the commercial world.  It will analyze the government’s permitted FDI policy and External Commercial Borrowings framework and associated FEMA policies. It will also address an increasing sector of outbound activity by Indian investors – i.e. overseas direct investments.

Since these type of large investments are a pre-requisite in infrastructure projects, the course will cover an introduction to various infrastructure laws that are prevalent today, exposure to regulators in various sectors, types of contracts and issues that we deal with governments and their various agencies. The sectors that will be generally covered are electricity, ports, roads, renewable/ clean energy, oil & gas etc. Some of technical/ operational aspects of these sectors will be shared with the students.

The course will also introduce the various players that are involved in any typical infrastructure projects, role of government, role of sponsors, role of lenders, role of contractors etc and how to evaluate and mitigate legal and commercial risk.

Any investments will need collateral. So, another aspect that the course will cover is introduction to transfer of property principles, types of security/collateral that can be created under law and introduce principles of security creation that is available under Indian law and the various nuances of enforcement and lender protection.

Infrastructure sector involves dealing with government and tenders. So, a portion of the course will deal with stages in a tender, bidding documents and issues for stake holders. One common area of concern in “change in control” issues and how to deal with it.

The course will also deal with due diligence of project contracts, typical issues that come up while undertaking diligence of infrastructure projects, lender issues and how to mitigate some of these risks.