Neeraj Gupta

I am an Infrastructure Finance professional currently working as Portfolio Manager with GuarantCo Management Co (GuarantCo), a PIDG (Private Infrastructure Development Group) company in London. GuarantCo is supported by the governments of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia and Sweden to address poverty alleviation by providing local currency solutions through assistance of guarantees.

I moved to GuarantCo in January 2019 to build on my experience in project finance and infrastructure finance in India through exposure in other geographies like Africa and other south Asian developing countries. It’s been a natural progression for me to work with company specializing in guarantees post my exposure in credit enhancement with my previous organization India Infrastructure Finance Co. Ltd. (IIFCL) in India. At GuarantCo, I’ve worked extensively in resolving some of the company’s legacy stressed assets in India and have gained some exposure in other geographies like Bangladesh. Working with GuarantCo has also given me opportunity to work in a highly diverse culture and fast paced environment.

Like GuarantCo, IIFCL is a lean organisation and has given me wide exposure in infrastructure sector like Renewable Energy, National Highways, Transmission, Waste to Energy, Airport and others. The smaller team sizes have meant wider scope of responsibilities encompassing credit appraisal, sensitivity analysis, viability assessment, due diligence, deal structuring, financial modeling, defining transaction terms, negotiations and closure of legal documents, internal approvals, regular monitoring, reporting, networking, sourcing deals and also on other areas like policy recommendations to government, presentation in seminars. This has helped me develop comprehensive all-round skills required for infrastructure financing. I take full ownership of tasks and go the extra mile in ensuring quality in my assignments and lead junior members of the team.

I’ve worked on number of customized financing products developed to address the financing constraints faced by infrastructure sector in India. Credit Enhancement (CE) through partial guarantees to cover first loss is one such product. In conceptualizing and introducing CE in India I’ve worked extensively with number of different stakeholders like long term bond investors, underwriters, credit rating agencies, project bond issuers, co-guarantors, legal counsels and regulators. The product was structured to meet requirements of different parties and to bring such diverse set of stakeholders to a common ground. I have successfully closed transactions worth more than $300 mn under CE with guarantees of $100 mn. Further, different agencies like ADB, IREDA were also partnered as backstop or co-guarantors. Similarly, other products that I’ve worked on are Infrastructure Debt Funds (IDF), Mezzanine Debt, Takeout Finance.

I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my credentials further.