Real economy projects (an industrial plant, a real estate development, a farming operation, an energy asset) rarely stop for lack of merit. They stop in the gap between the idea and a package a lender can analyze. These notes gather patterns that often show up in that gap, without identifying projects or people.
01
Documents that tell the wrong story
The first sign of delay is usually documentary: outdated property records, expired licenses or licenses held by another group company, contracts not signed by every party. Each issue is small. Together, they turn the credit review into a list of requirements and push the schedule back by months.
The way out is to build the data room as if the investor were the most skeptical person at the table: organized by topic, with the status of each document stated and open issues disclosed before they are discovered.
The problem is rarely a lack of investors. It is the project arriving without the answers the investor will ask for.
02
Numbers that do not match
Financial model, construction budget and physical schedule must tell the same story. When the model assumes a revenue start date the schedule cannot support, or a cost the budget does not detail, the conversation stops being about how much and on what terms and becomes about which number to believe.
- A single version of the assumptions, with a date and an owner.
- Physical and financial schedules tied to each other.
- Stress scenarios showing what happens if the timeline or the cost changes.
03
Collateral considered too late
A collateral structure is design, not an appendix. Assignment of receivables, fiduciary transfer, segregated estates and escrow accounts have different requirements and costs, and some depend on steps that take weeks, such as registrations and third-party consents.
When collateral is only discussed after the proposal, the project finds out late that the asset offered is not free or that the deal requires a vehicle that does not exist yet.
04
The order of decisions
The most common pattern is deciding in the wrong order: looking for an investor before defining the project's corporate structure, or choosing the instrument (debt, CRI, CRA, a new partner) before understanding what the cash flow can support. Reversing the sequence costs time and, sometimes, the deal itself.
The order that works is simpler than it looks: understand the asset and the cash flow, organize documents and risks, design structure and collateral, and only then choose the instrument and the partner.
Practical conclusion
- 01Build the data room with open issues disclosed before they are discovered.
- 02Model, budget and schedule must tell the same story.
- 03Define structure and collateral before choosing the instrument and the partner.
MOXS SELECT
Editorial team
Sources
- 1.Law No. 14,430/2022 (securitization of receivables, CRI and CRA).
- 2.Law No. 10,931/2004 (segregated estates in real estate developments).
- 3.Law No. 9,514/1997 (fiduciary transfer of real property).
