The White House has updated the program of infrastructure bonds

The White House has updated the infrastructure bond program both in terms of the list of projects that can be financed through this mechanism, and in terms of the “geography” of its application. The program includes electric power facilities created as part of the development of cities, and not only in the implementation of housing construction projects, as it is now. In addition, now loans issued to developers through the issuance of bonds can be secured not only by guarantees from the regions (only subjects of the Russian Federation with a low level of public debt are allowed to provide them), but also by guarantees from banks and development institutions.

The program of infrastructure bonds involves their placement (the issuer is a subsidiary of Dom.RF) with the direction of funds raised to developers in the form of loans at a preferential 4% per annum. This money can be used to create road, engineering and social infrastructure as part of housing construction, as well as to build citywide infrastructure. Now, according to Dom.RF, 42 such projects have been approved in 22 regions with a total loan amount of 138 billion rubles.

The adopted resolution supplements the list of objects that can be financed under this program: it includes electric power facilities. As Alexander Aksakov, director of the Infrastructure Bonds division of Dom.RF, explained to Kommersant, previously it was possible to finance power supply facilities only for housing construction projects (for example, engineering networks to provide microdistricts), but now the mechanism will also apply to larger projects in urban development, such as transmission lines, substations and distribution points. Also, the requirements for entering the program of projects for the construction of houses for renting out apartments are reduced – the minimum area has been reduced from 10 thousand to 5 thousand square meters. m.

The key change is the possibility of attracting independent guarantees from banks or development institutions to secure loans to developers. Now such amounts are issued only under the state guarantees of the regions. But in order to issue a guarantee, the level of public debt of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation, on the territory of which it is planned to implement the project, should not exceed 50% of its income (an increase in the threshold to 75% is allowed, but then the project is no longer selected by the interdepartmental, but by the government commission for regional development). Thus, the mechanism for issuing state guarantees to credited regions is not available. According to Alexander Aksakov, the introduction of changes regarding guarantees means that “infrastructural facilities anywhere in the country can count on financing from Dom.RF.”

Director of the Research Center for Spatial Analysis and Regional Diagnostics of the IPEI RANEPA Dmitry Zemlyansky notes that approximately 25 regions have a public debt level of more than 50%, and almost a third – more than 70%. The changes could “slightly expand” the scope of infrastructure bonds, he said, but independent guarantees are an option for projects with a good financial model and a high probability of payback, “complex projects will still have to seek government guarantees.”

Timur Iskandarov, Head of the Project and Structured Finance Rating Group at ACRA, believes that the possibility of using independent guarantees will have a positive effect on the development of the program – “regions are far from always open to accepting additional debt obligations, which in itself constrained the potential of the program.” Andrey Stolyarov, Associate Professor of the Department of Financial Markets Infrastructure at the Faculty of Economics at the Higher School of Economics, adds that the innovation is also beneficial for regions with a low level of debt, since it will not grow, which will positively affect the financial situation and credit rating.

In general, the head of Dom.RF, Vitaly Mutko, estimated the effect of innovations at a potential additional 70 million square meters. m of built housing in the period up to 2030.

Evgenia Kryuchkova