Financial Model Assurance Services team awarded “Model Auditor of the Year” for both Europe and Asia
Financial Model Assurance Services team awarded “Model Auditor of the Year” for both Europe and Asia
BDO’s Financial Model Assurance Services (‘FMAS’) team have been recognised in virtual awards ceremonies by IJGlobal as “Model Auditor of the Year for the Europe 2020” and Model Auditor of the Year for the Asia-Pacific 2020”
These two awards, in addition to being recognised in league tables by both IJGlobal and Inframation & Sparkspread as the #1 Global Model Auditor for 2020 by deal value, build upon the similar awards received for the team’s work in prior years (Europe & Africa in 2017 and 2018, the Americas in 2017, North America in 2018 and Middle East and North Africa in 2019).
The FMAS team’s European award was further enhanced by being recognised as supporting nine IJGlobal award winning “Deals of the Year 2020” in Europe, a record even for this multi-award winning team and comprising of:
- G.Network (Digital Infrastructure Fibre Deal of the Year)
- Coriance (Refinancing Social Infrastructure - District Heating)
- London Array (Refinancing Renewables Offshore Wind)
- Antwerp Gateway (Refinancing Transport Port)
- Iberwind Portuguese wind farm (Refinancing Renewables Portfolio)
- A465 (Transport Deal of the Year)
- Calisen Refinancing (Refinancing Telecoms / Digital Infra - Smart Metering)
- Project Helios (Refinancing Solar CSP)
- Northvolt (Battery Storage and Export Finance)
The above awards recognise BDO UK’s work internationally, with these awards covering projects in the UK, France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Amongst the deals we supported, the A465 ‘Heads of the Valley’ project, which was awarded European Transport Deal of the Year, was a landmark deal being the first to use Wales’ mutual investment model, whilst Northvolt, which received two awards, is a €1.6bn “megafactory” in Sweden that will produce batteries for electric vehicles.
In addition to the projects recognised with awards, our submission also included our work on the Seagreen offshore windfarm, the Taza windfarm in Morocco, the US$20bn+ Mozambique Area 1 LNG project, and the Shuaibah independent water project expansion in Saudi Arabia amongst others.
The FMAS team works with the support of local tax and accounting experts in the international BDO network to provide ‘model audits’ around the world. Our increasing collaboration with BDO member frims was reflected in our submission for the Asia-Pacific region which was prepared in conjunction with BDO Australia. Our submission included exemplars for both teams’ work across the Asia-Pacific region including the Changfang and Xidao offshore windfarms, Summit Gazipur 2 Oil-Fired Power Plant in Bangladesh and the Tengiz and Korolev Oil Field Portfolio Refinancing in Kazakhstan – and we won.
Kirit Mistry, head of FMAS, commented that “To be recognised by the project & infrastructure community for our work during the pandemic demonstrates the resilience of the FMAS team and its adaptability to move seamlessly to fully remote / fully connected team, continuing to support clients the world on some of the highest profile projects, many that meet investors’ Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria. To have supported deals of over US$42bn last year, including many that received deal of the year awards, was a great achievement in challenging times, and we are supporting even more deals in 2021!”