Ascendant Project Finance

The Firm

Ascendant Project Finance (APF) was recently established by ASCENDANT in partnership with Mr. Tarik Bilabegović. Mr. Bilalbegović has spent the past eleven years working in the most recent role as a Vice President with East West Financial Services based in Washington DC with a specialized focus on raising financing for the leisure and real estate projects in emerging markets. His main experience comes from raising debt and equity financing and negotiating loan and management agreements with capital markets to support the development of greenfield mixed use branded luxury resorts with adjacent serviced real estate within Caribbean and Central America. Most notably he worked for the respective owners of several Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton, and One&Only affiliated mixed use resort developments, as well as for the ownership group developing several Marriott Courtyard projects.

Mr. Bilalbegović returned to his native Bosnia and Herzegovina in late 2009 to head APF as an investment banking firm focused on opportunities in Southeast Europe and the Middle East.

Approach

APF task is to provide its clients with utmost professionalism and creativeness to maximize their return on investment through “financial engineering”. APF’s “financial engineering” of projects is a highly creative and specialized process that involves working with clients to structure, create and present projects in a way that enhances their profitability and viability in relationship with capital markets.

At the client’s discretion, APF remains directly involved in most stages of project development, through its capitalization and into early operational stages. In some cases APF can stay involved post project completion through the asset management role.

Services

APF’s expertise includes the following:

• Deep insight into the viability of projects and identification of potential major issues that can impair the project development
• Advise clients on selection of project team, including but not limited to appraisers, architect, sales, legal and feasibility teams
• Provide analysis for the highest and best use of available land and/or development parcel including review of business development plan
• Provide complete financial and construction model outlining all developments aspects and anticipated costs on a monthly time schedule allowing for running various scenarios and sensitivities analysis before actual costs are incurred
• Provide recommendation on the most cost-effective mix of hotel and real estate units and sizes with special attention to choosing an appropriate strategic anchor brand and its effect on real estate pricing within the overall master plan theme
• Raise required debt and equity financing that is acceptable to client with the fiduciary responsibility to protect their investment and development interests
• Provide access to large network of investors from private equity groups, sovereign funds, and private individuals as well as financing community specializing in the leisure and real estate sectors
• Provide analysis on financial impact that incorporation of different brands can have on the overall development profit

Market View

Bilabegovic’s experience comes from having worked for owners of some of the most prestigious high end resorts in the world, including the Ritz Carlton Resort and Residences in Grand Cayman and Four Season Resort at Peninsula Papagayo in Costa Rica:

˝The high end leisure development is getting itself ready to come into the region of Southeast Europe. To date there are very few high end international management companies operating in the region. I see this is as a huge opportunity, both in brands entering capital cities expansion as well as targeting resort developments. Ascendant Project Finance is one of the few companies that can provide real expertise in this area. From our perspective we need quality, scalable projects that are realistically structured with strong fundamentals for the new financial post crisis realities. To protect and maximize their returns the developers need to look at service level and boutique style resorts that move away from mass market approach. In terms of capital cities the renovation or rebranding of existing hotels seems the most efficient path to bringing high end brands into premiere facilities in the region if they are to profit going forward˝

Partner Background

Mr. Bilalbegović is an investment banker with 10 years emerging market experience in financing real-estate. hospitality, and infrastructure projects ($2 billion in aggregate). His specific expertise is in financial and legal structures negotiations and in structuring and raising equity and debt capital. Mr. Bilalbegović holds BA degree from Grinnell College in Iowa in Political Science, M.A. degree in International Economics from Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC, and is a Ph.D. candidate at George Mason University in Conflict Management in Arlington, Virginia.

Projects

Development of Wilson Plaza Swissotel Office Park in Sarajevo, Bosnia
Development of High End Mixed Use Hotel and Real Estate affiliated project in Tivat, Montenegro, by Qatari Diar
Rebranding and sale of luxury downtown hotel in Belgrade, Serbia

Selected Former projects

While acting as a Vice President with East West Financial Services based in Washington DC Mr. Bilalbegovic, within a 3 member team, was closely involved with the greenfield development of the following projects, including raising and structuring financing for their development:

Four Seasons Hotel and Residences in Denver, Colorado
http://residences.fourseasons.com/private_residences/denver

Ritz Carlton Resort and Residences in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
www.residences-cayman.com

Four Seasons Resort in Peninsula Papagayo, Costa Rica
www.peninsulapapagayo.com