Project finance runs on a simple premise: lenders are repaid from the project’s cash flows, not the sponsor’s balance sheet. That structure makes project finance disputes unlike ordinary commercial litigation — when a government measure, an offtaker default, or a construction failure interrupts cash flow, every contract in the financing stack reacts at once. We represent sponsors, lenders, and investors when financed projects in Latin America, the Caribbean, and beyond run into trouble.

Project Finance Disputes We Handle

  • Guarantee and standby letter of credit calls — completion guarantees, performance standbys, and ISP98 standby instruments, on both the beneficiary and applicant side
  • Offtake, supply, and EPC disputes that threaten debt service, including construction arbitration under FIDIC-style contracts
  • Concession and PPP lender protections — step-in rights, direct agreements, and termination-compensation disputes on concession and PPP projects
  • Government action against financed projects — expropriation, licence cancellation, currency-transfer restrictions, and breach of concession terms
  • Political-risk insurance coordination — aligning PRI claims with contractual and treaty remedies so one recovery route does not prejudice another

The Treaty Dimension of Project Finance

Sponsors are not the only ones who may hold treaty protections. Depending on the treaty’s wording, lenders and noteholders may qualify as protected investors, and loans, notes, and contractual rights may constitute qualifying investments. Whether that is true in your case turns on the applicable instrument, your nationality and structure, and the facts — our free Investment Treaty Finder shows which instruments may be potentially relevant to a country pair, and our fixed-fee Treaty-Risk Assessment analyzes whether they can actually help you.

How We Work

Project finance disputes reward early mapping. We start with the financing stack — credit agreement, intercreditor, direct agreements, security, guarantees, offtake, EPC — and identify where the pressure actually sits, which defaults are curable, and which notices start clocks. Then we sequence remedies deliberately: negotiation and standstill where value is preserved, guarantee or standby demands where they are clean, arbitration or treaty claims where they are not. Our goal is the recovery route with the best ratio of outcome to burn rate.

Is government action threatening a financed project? Our flat-fee Treaty-Risk Assessment maps the treaty options for sponsors and lenders. For contractual and guarantee disputes, contact our office directly.

Attorney advertising. General information only, not legal advice. © Transnational Matters PLLC.