6.5 Financial close

At contract execution there may be a small number of matters that financiers need to resolve before unreservedly committing their finance to the project. Such issues may include approvals from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Australian Taxation Office and the Foreign Investment Review Board. Generally, final approval will be forthcoming from these bodies only once the executed contractual documents have been sighted.

It is important that the matters left outstanding at contract execution are kept to an absolute minimum to prevent an unacceptable delay between contract execution and financial close. When these matters have been resolved, financial close can occur.

At financial close, the service charges under the contract can also be finalised. Usually, the level of charges depends on changes in interest rates in the period between bid submission and financial close.