Resumen en inglés

ABSTRACT: Project finance with nonrecourse or limited recourse, is a fnanctng strategy in which the payment assumed by the sponsor entity of the project is achieved exclusively through the cash flow and the future revenues coming from the project. Such debt is guaranteed by the assets, rights and interests of the project. The resaurce of the lenders against the shareholders of the sponsor entity is limited or unexisting with regard to the other assets that tbe sponsor may have sometimes. Generally speaking ah Prolect Finance is structured based upon a study market, where a input contract of raw supphies and a offtake sales contract are mandatory, yet without the no existence of one of the two markets, there is not Project Finance. Other fundamental aspects comprising the erectment of the enterpnse - project with known sponsors, a agreements to assign, rehief and distnbution of risks through contracts of input, of construction, of operation, offtake sales and financing, beside is usual a finance sindication and the establishment of loan repay mechanisms. The risks identified and assigned to the project finance seek not only to satisfy the requirements of the financia¡ market, but also to assure that the more signiflcant risks have been identified and assigned to the more prepared participants to face them. Project finance in Colombia has had a special topmost height along the 90's, thanks to the proclaim of ¡mportant laws which aUowed the participation of private companies in the development of basic infrastructure projects, which were have being managed by public entities. Foremost laws that launched the project finance wthin the country are Law 142, Law 143, Law 80 of 1993 and low 105 of 1993. Project finance has allowed the income of private capital both in the investment of new infrastructure projects with an estimated value of US$6.1 billion and in the privatisations with a value near to US$5 billion (as of December 1999). Looking to the future, project finance in Colombia will be feasible as long as private developers accept more conservative structures with less leveraged debt, and try to minimize the government participation, and assume major market risks.