Blimey – what a week… and I’m not talking about everything that’s going on in the world, it’s a localised statement for those of us who toil daily to bring you news and analysis of the global financing of infrastructure and energy.

This week has seen IJGlobal host awards nights for Europe and Africa, followed the next day by the Americas event – me presenting in London and IJGlobal editor Ila Patel taking point in New York.

On Wednesday night, at The Londoner in Leicester Square – an enormous venue that is possibly one of the capital’s best-kept secrets as nobody knew it was there – I presented alongside Lucy Porter (of QI and Mock The Week fame):

• Global Award Winners
• Europe & Africa Company Winners
• European Deals of the Year
• African Deals of the Year

Meanwhile, in the stunning Gotham Hall in New York, Ila was joined on Thursday night by Carole Montgomery (from showtime specials that she created and stars in: Funny Women of a Certain Age) to present:

• North American Company Winners
• Latin American Company Winners
• North America Deals of the Year
• Latin American Deals of the Year

Next up, we have the Dubai event on 30 March which will be hosted by Ila as I’m on holiday the next week… and I’ll be damned if I’m going to catch coronavirus and not be able to swan off to Corfu for a week in moderate temperatures.

We kicked the ball down the road with the APAC awards – planning to host it on 24 May in Singapore – crossing fingers that an in-person event (isn’t it awful that this term actually exists) are possible on the ground.

Given the utter delight of everyone in London (yet to have a debrief on the NY event), there is such enthusiasm for events like this that we wish we had more to stage. And Doug tells me that tables are selling like hot cakes in Dubai… so that should be fun as well.

But it’s all changing

In the coming weeks – once the dust has settled from IJGlobal Awards 2021 – we’re going to be calling on judges from this year’s awards and a few from previous sessions to give the greenfield and refinance awards the spring clean they badly need.

There is industry-wide confusion over which of our awards focus on what… and it’s time we called a halt and made it 100% clear which one focuses on what. Having said that, if some folk actually read the criteria, it would save them a lot of bother.

We took the decision in late 2018 to separate out infrastructure fund and M&A activity to host as a separate awards night because the IJGlobal Awards were taking all night to present… too many awards and not enough time at the end for “networking”. And so IJInvestor Awards came into being.

In November 2019 we hosted our first IJInvestor Awards and promptly had to call a halt to physical events, making a return in December 2021 with cracking night at Pan Pacific. The 2022 event will be staged late this year, likely November/December.

Last year, we hosted the first IJGlobal ESG Awards and we have every belief that this – one day – will replace the primary IJGlobal Awards. We have stripped out ESG components from our other awards so that this stands alone and is credible.

As with all our awards, we will stand true to our commitment to make our awards more transparent than any other event in the infrastructure and energy sector – to the best of our knowledge. We will continue to call on industry experts to judge the organisations (lenders, lawyers, financial advisers, etc.) so that these are impartial and peer review.

The global awards – which represent the cumulation of all voting from across the 5 judging panels (next year we will have 6, stripping out Africa for its own dedicated judging session) – are without question the most prestigious award we believe it is possible to win in infrastructure and energy.

Why do I say that?

Well, we tot up all the awards from all of the 5 judging sessions – Europe & Africa, North America, Latin America, MENA and APAC – and choose the winner that scored consistently across each region. The global winner does not have to have won in any individual region – though that would be a statistical anomaly.

And yes, we reserve the right to insult them… because it just feels like we’ve gone a little bit too native and been just that little bit too nice!

Here follows a spread of pictures from the London event...

Global Awards

SMBC - winner of the IJGlobal Global MLA of the Year

Allen & Overy - winner of the IJGlobal Global Law Firm of the Year

Arup - winner of the IJGlobal Global Technical Adviser of the Year

Deutsche Bank - Global Corporate Trust Provider

Citi - Global Bond Arranger of the Year

Europe & Africa Company Winners

Societe Generale - Europe & Africa MLA of the Year

EBRD - Europe & Africa DFI of the Year

Globeleq Africa - Europe & Africa Sponsor of the Year

Allen & Overy - Europe & Africa Law Firm of the Year

Societe Generale - Europe & Africa Bond Arranger of the Year

Societe Generale - Europe & Africa Financial Adviser of the Year

Arup - Europe & Africa Technical Adviser of the Year

Deutsche Bank - Europe & Africa Corporate Trust Provider

Fitch Ratings - Europe & Africa Ratings Agency of the Year

Operis - Europe & Africa Model Auditor of the Year

Deals of the year

Central Termica de Temane CCGT, Mozambique

Icanadolu CCGT Refinance, Turkey

Affinity Water Green Bond Facility, UK

Enfinium Waste-to-Energy, UK

Cote d'Ivoire Terminal

D4 Haje-Mirotice PPP, Czech Republic

Carrefour EV Charging Stations, France

Ethiopia Telecoms Privatisation, Vodafone

Unsere Grune Glasfaser, Germany

University of Birmingham, Pritchatts Park

Tri-K Gold Mine Additional Facility, Guinea

Ambatovy Nickel & Cobalt Mine Refinance, Madagascar

Thameslink Rolling Stock PPP Refinance

Star Refinery Refinance, Turkey

Area 1 Mozambique LNG

Noreco RBL ESG-Linked Refinance, Norway

TNOG Hybrid Finance, Niger/Nigeria

UKEF – Kalyon Enerji’s Karapinar Solar Project, Turkey