8th Bridge Capital on Asian Project Investment Rankings

(Newswire.net — March 30, 2018) Los Angeles, California — For global development projects that are infrastructure-intensive, Asian investment groups dominate the landscape. Until recently, Japanese megabanks, such as the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, have been the leading lenders for projects around the world. That focus is changing, however. In recent months, Chinese and Indian banking interests have begun to upend the financing rankings. 8th Bridge Capital, a private equity firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California, has seen Chinese and Indian banking lenders crack the top 10 of project financing rankings, surprising many in the investments analysis field. “Asian banks across the board have been extremely active in large-scale projects, especially in the United States and Australia,” says a spokesperson for the California equity firm. “India’s State Bank and the China Development Bank have invested heavily into global projects.” To learn more about the company’s role in EB-5, visit https://newswire.net/newsroom/pr/00100902-8th-bridge-capital-discusses-future-eb5-program.html.

In 2017, over $229 billion was committed to project financing, most of which went to large-scale projects like solar power generation, wind farming initiatives, and transport infrastructure. Three of the top 10 banks in the rankings were Japanese; Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group occupied the top slot for the sixth year in a row, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group was third, and Mizuho Financial Group was eighth on the list. The three Japanese banks on the list accounted for 12% of all global project financing. The State Bank of India took the second slot on the list, rising up from 10th place in 2016. Two Chinese banks, China Development Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, both entered the top 10 rankings, occupying 5th and 7th places respectively. China’s rise in project financing is due in no small part to the cross-border Belt and Road Initiative, which is a strategy bringing together Eurasian countries to invest in infrastructure projects, manufacturing, transportation, and real estate. The United States is the leading recipient of Asian project loans, taking in about one-fifth of total financing volume. The United Kingdom and Australia were also beneficiaries of project financing.

Large-scale project financing has seen substantial changes over the past two decades. Where the United States, particularly Citibank dominated the list of top lenders in the early 2000s, European banking interests like France’s BNP Paribas and the Royal Bank of Scotland eclipsed U.S. lenders later in the decade. “Financial crises in Europe and in the U.S. paved the way for Asian lenders to rise in prominence,” says the spokesperson for 8th Bridge Capital. “Domestic demand in Japan for project financing was limited, so Japanese banks shifted their focus to offshore markets. Chinese and Indian banking interests followed suit.” For more information on 8th Bridge and their extensive slate of financial services for project investors, visit https://8thbridgecap.com/.