DFC approves Jordanian water carrier finance; only World Bank deal carries a figure

The US DFC has approved a finance package for a Jordanian water carrier, one of two water items in P3 Bulletin's latest roundup, while the other—the World Bank's $50 million backing for the Paraíba sanitation P3—is the only entry in the file with a number attached. How large the Jordanian package is, how long it runs, and on what terms the carrier repays it do not appear in the material, which gives the approval and nothing else; the World Bank entry attaches $50 million to Paraíba without saying whether the money is a loan, a guarantee or a grant, who the borrower is, or over what period it is committed. The DFC entry records an approval rather than a close, with no date and no indication of when or whether money moves.

Set those two financings against the rest of the roundup and the shape of the file is clear.

Around the status items sits a second layer of process: consultants are being sought for a Washington station expansion, for an 'SC' innovative financing framework and for an investment roadmap in Flagstaff, and advisers are wanted for a Canadian waterfront development. Accenture has launched an infrastructure advisory business called Construct, the Bipartisan Policy Center is making a case for P3 potential, and Concert reports strong potential for Canadian P3s. Two personnel entries sit closer to capital than to construction—a former Metrolinx chief is to join the Alto project and Equitix has appointed a capital formation lead—though the roundup names neither executive. Several remaining entries are the outlet's own editorial products, yearbook features and a list of the market's top young professionals rather than market events, which is worth keeping in mind when counting how much of a file is activity and how much is coverage of activity.

What separates the two water items from everything else is the identity of the lenders rather than the amounts. A US development agency and the World Bank both lend where commercial sponsors will not, which is how a Jordanian water carrier and a sanitation program in Paraíba reach an approval while a mobility hub or a station expansion waits on fares, tolls or a public payment before anyone will price it. Sponsors have been rotating toward water and rail since the summer, as this publication described in August, while flagship road deals sat in local politics. September kept the shape: the World Bank's $50 million was the only commitment in a roundup of mandates, consultant tenders and feasibility studies. For transit, the visible output has been consultants and studies rather than capital.

Transport is not inert, and a list of headlines is a poor instrument for judging it, since a concession that closes appears as a financial close rather than as a line in a roundup. Transit deals clear where a single local body can consent—a city council vote did that in August, as we reported, while highway deals stayed stuck—difficulty arrives one level up, where a governor, a legislature or a federal agency has to agree before anyone will underwrite. Washington's station file has been staffed and studied and remains unpriced, and the answer this roundup gives is to seek more consultants.

Four entries point to the Americas, and they are the ones furthest along: a concession planned for a Colombian airport, a contractor on board for a Peru healthcare P3, a logistics hub tendered in Jamaica and a feasibility study under way for a leisure plan in Cali. A tender and a named contractor are later steps than a consultant search, though none of the four carries a value, and the listing gives no dates for any item either, so the sequence inside the roundup cannot be established from it. P3 Bulletin also lists a technology, P3TER, which its yearbook says is unearthing dozens more potential P3s; its single analysis slot goes to a piece by Lisa Best on a project left on the back foot by politics, previous experience and community concerns, and the project is not named in the listing.

The projects are not the difficulty: a consultant tender is how an authority tests whether a concession is viable, and Contra Costa asking the question is a reasonable first step for an agency that has not used the model. The arithmetic is the difficulty—two financings against a wall of mandates, tenders and studies, one of the financings unpriced, and capital sitting in water while paperwork spreads across transit, healthcare, agriculture and airports.

What would change the reading is a transport entry arriving with a size attached. Contra Costa's exploration either turns into a procurement notice or joins the pile of studies; the DFC package may acquire a published figure, or it may stay a headline with nothing under it. A DFC number would deepen the water column. A Contra Costa number would be the first the transport column has seen in this file.