1 Build-Operate-Transfer

Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) is a form of project financing, wherein a private entity receives a concession from the private or public sector to finance, design, construct, and operate a facility for a specified period, often as long as 20 or 30 years. After the concession period ends, ownership is transferred back to the granting entity.

During the concession the project proponent is allowed to charge the users of the facility appropriate tolls, fees, rentals, and charges stated in the concession contract. This enables the project proponent to recover its investment, operating and maintenance expenses in the project. Due to the long-term nature of the arrangement, the fees are usually raised during the concession period. The rate of increase is often tied to a combination of internal and external variables, allowing the proponent to reach a satisfactory internal rate of return for its investment.

Examples of countries using BOT are India, Croatia, Japan, Taiwan (Republic of China), Malaysia, Philippines and Hong Kong. However, in some countries, such as Canada and New Zealand, the term used is Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT). Recently, in the United States, BOT strategies are being considered for construction of portions of Interstate 69, with groundbreaking on the Southern Indiana Toll Road segment expected to begin in 2008.

Traditionally, such projects provide for the infrastructure to be transferred to the government at the end of the concession period. (in Australia, primarily for reasons related to the borrowing powers of states, the transfer obligation is omitted).

BOT is a type of project financing. The hallmarks of project financing are:

(i) The lenders to the project look primarily at the earnings of the project as the source from which loan repayments will be made. Their credit assessment is based on the project, not on the credit worthiness of the borrowing entity.

(ii) The security taken by the lenders is largely confined to the project assets. As such, project financing is often referred to as "limited recourse" financing because lenders are given only a limited recourse against the borrower.

Most project finance structures are complex. The risks in the project are spread between the various parties; each risk is usually assumed by the party which can most efficiently and cost-effectively control or handle it.

Once the project's risks are identified, the likelihood of their occurrence assessed and their impact on the project determined, the sponsor must allocate those risks. Briefly, its options are to absorb the risk, lay off the risk with third parties, such as insurers, or allocate the risk among contractors and lenders. The sponsor will be acting, more often than not, on behalf of a sponsor at a time when the equity participants are unknown. Nevertheless, each of the participants in the project must be satisfied with the risk allocation, the creditworthiness of the risk taker and the reward that flows to the party taking the risk. In this respect, each party takes a quasi equity risk in the project.