Infra Dig – Yandisa Nongena tackles energy PF

The focus of this latest episode switches to shine the light on the publication of a book on project finance that will hit the shelves in May… and it’s written by a London-based banker.

IJGlobal editorial director Angus Leslie Melville talks to former NordLB banker Yandisa Nongena about the book he has written giving the lender’s view of the project finance of energy.

In a podcast that runs for a little more than 41 minutes, Yandisa takes the listener through his banking pedigree and outlines the benefits his book – “Project Financing Energy Projects with Senior Debt: A Practical Guide” – will bring to practitioners.

This latest episode can be accessed on Spotify (embedded above) as well as through the Amazon service. It is also hosted across a slew of other platforms, open access on all of them.

Yandisa – author of this book on PF which is being published by Springer – starts off by taking the listener through how he entered the banking world, outlining the evolution of his career up to the point he left NordLB to write this text book.

Heiko Ludwig – global head of structured finance at NordLB – has written the foreword to the book and it’s clear from the discussion that he has been a mentor to Yandisa and a career-long ally.

Yandisa said: “I never set out to write a book, but in 2023 – around May – I resigned from NordLB and this sent shockwaves through my colleagues in the bank. I had been there for 15-and-a-half years and friends and colleagues were commenting that skills and knowledge being lost was quite terrible.

“I felt terrible that I was leaving, so I prepared some guides on due diligence, on the interplay between the ISDA, inter-creditor and facility agreements, and an overview of the electricity market. And I then shared that with my colleagues and friends I was leaving behind.”

It turned out that management liked the guides he had created for those who followed him and – over lunch with Heiko – a plan was hatched to write the book… and the rest will be history… in May… once the book is published.

Yandisa – who will be returning for a second Infra Dig podcast this summer once the book is published – takes the listener through his book which will undoubtedly become an industry favourite as it focuses on project finance from a lender and financial adviser perspective, benefiting form his early training as an engineer.

Tune in to this latest episode to hear all about it…