Our PPP Practice
DWG Next advises governments, institutional investors, developers, and operators on the full lifecycle of public-private partnership projects, from initial structuring and procurement through to financial close, post-completion oversight, and concession renegotiation. We bring together legal, financial, technical, and strategic advisory capabilities within a single integrated team, enabling clients to navigate the complex interactions between public authorities and private actors without coordinating multiple external advisers. Our commitment to projects extends across the operational life of the infrastructure, including where circumstances require restructuring or renegotiation.
What We Handle
Delivery Model Selection and Legal Structuring
We design the legal architecture of PPP projects to ensure bankability, enforceability, and political durability. This includes selecting the optimal delivery model across PPP, concession, BOT, BOOT, DBFO, and availability-based structures; designing risk allocation matrices; structuring cross-border investment vehicles; and advising on stabilisation, change-in-law mechanisms, and sovereign guarantees.
Procurement and Contracting
Project Finance Structuring
We design capital stacks that ensure bankability and resilience across the full transaction lifecycle. This covers financial modelling, debt sizing and covenant structuring, blended finance models, tariff modelling, and engagement with multilateral institutions including the IFC, EIB, EBRD, AfDB, ADB, and World Bank.
We design and manage procurement processes compliant with domestic and multilateral frameworks. Services cover procurement law compliance, drafting of tender documentation (RFQ and RFP), bid evaluation methodologies, negotiation of concession and project agreements, and interface management between EPC, O&M, and financing agreements.
Corporate and Contractual Architecture
We advise on the structuring of special purpose vehicles, joint ventures, and consortium arrangements; draft and negotiate shareholder and interface agreements; and prepare the full suite of financing and concession documentation.
Regulatory and Policy Advisory
We support clients on regulatory compliance, EU and international framework alignment, state aid analysis, and investment treaty protection. Where required, we advise governments directly on PPP legislative and regulatory reform, including the design of PPP units and national procurement governance frameworks.
Capacity Building and Institutional Strengthening
We assist governments in designing PPP units, developing national infrastructure programmes, and reforming procurement frameworks. This includes ministerial workshops, technical regulator training, and public finance capacity building.
Dispute Prevention and Resolution
We provide claims management frameworks, renegotiation strategy for distressed concessions, investor-state dispute advisory including ICSID mechanisms, mediation strategy, and forensic delay and cost analysis.
Sectors
Transport & Mobility Infrastructure
Road concessions, toll highways, railway systems including high-speed and urban commuter rail, airports, and integrated urban transport systems worldwide.
Energy & Utilities
Power sector restructuring and privatisation, independent power projects, renewable energy concessions, grid modernisation, and rural electrification programmes.
Water & Urban Infrastructure
Water sector reform, water distribution and treatment infrastructure, wastewater treatment, solid waste processing, and urban asset management systems.
Defence & National Security
PPP and concession structuring for strategic installations, dual‑use facilities, and security infrastructure, including compliance with defence procurement frameworks, national security investment screening, and export control requirements.
Reconstruction & Resilience
PPP frameworks designed to support post‑conflict and post‑crisis reconstruction, including programme design for large‑scale public investment recovery, with particular focus on Ukraine.
Aviation Infrastructure
Airport PPPs and concessions, aviation regulatory reform, air navigation and airspace management frameworks, and integration of aviation infrastructure into wider national and regional transport networks.
Geographies
A map of all jurisdictions where our team members have previously worked.
Why DWG Next?
Giovannella D'Andrea
Harold Wouters
Christopher Clement-Davies
Alan Jones
Iryna Zapatrina
Sergio Polizzotti
PPP mandates fail most often because of misalignment between legal structures, financial requirements, technical realities, and political context.
DWG Next is structured to address all four dimensions simultaneously. Our team combines senior lawyers with direct experience advising governments and multilateral institutions, financial advisers with deep project finance structuring capability, technical experts with feasibility and engineering oversight experience, and geopolitical strategists who understand the institutional environment in which public infrastructure decisions are made.
We have worked directly with the UNECE, EBRD, World Bank, IFC, EIB, AfDB, and ADB, giving us fluent understanding of the institutional expectations and documentation standards that multilateral lenders require.
Giovannella has over 30 years of experience advising more than 40 governments, EU institutions, and regional bodies on infrastructure regulation and PPP frameworks across energy, transport, water, and waste. She structures PPPs and blended finance models that align national legislation with EU law and multilateral lenders’ requirements. Her work includes designing concession schemes, co‑funding structures with EIB, EBRD, ADB, and the World Bank, and integrating Green, Social, and Sustainable Bond instruments into PPP programmes.
Harold is a corporate and project finance lawyer with over 40 years of experience in cross‑border infrastructure and energy transactions, including PPP‑style structures in emerging markets. He has advised governments, state‑owned enterprises, and investors on complex concession and project finance arrangements, notably in power, renewables, and large‑scale industrial assets in Europe, Africa, and Asia. His track record includes legal work on sector restructurings and privatisations that created PPP‑ready regulatory environments in Sub‑Saharan Africa.
Alan is a senior international projects lawyer who led the Energy and Natural Resources Group at Clifford Chance and later founded LXL LLP, a boutique focused on energy, power, and infrastructure projects. He has advised governments, state‑owned enterprises, and listed companies on large‑scale concession and project finance structures across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. His PPP‑relevant experience spans upstream legal structuring, risk allocation, and dispute management for strategic infrastructure assets.
Christopher is a dual‑qualified UK barrister and solicitor and former investment banker, with over 30 years in energy and infrastructure project finance, PPPs, and privatisations. He has worked on more than 40 PPP and IPP projects worldwide and has advised many governments and multilaterals on PPP legal and policy reform. He was Project Leader and principal author of the UNECE–EBRD Model PPP Law and co‑author of the EBRD’s comprehensive Legal Guide to PPPs, and has served as a special adviser on PPPs to UNCITRAL and to the Camdessus World Water Panel.
Sergio has 35 years of experience in civil works and transport infrastructure, specialising in feasibility studies, project finance, and PPP structuring for roads, rail, and urban transport. He has acted as Senior Consultant to the World Bank, ADB, AfDB, EBRD, EIB, and national ministries on PPP‑based transport and mobility investments in developing and transition economies. His work focuses on economic and financial analysis, risk allocation, and concession design that support bankable transport PPP projects.
Iryna is a Professor of Finance with over 40 years of experience and more than 15 years advising on PPP and public investment management for the World Bank, EBRD, UNECE, UNDP, and USAID. She served as Deputy Minister of Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine and has led PPP initiatives in transport, energy, healthcare, and education, including unsolicited proposals. She authored the monograph “Public‑Private Partnership for Sustainable Development Goals” and co‑authored the EBRD–UNECE Guidelines for PPPs in Sustainable Economic Recovery and the UNECE–EBRD Standard on PPP and Concession Legal Frameworks, making her a key reference for PPP frameworks in Ukraine and beyond.
Head of PPP Practice, Managing Partner
Managing Partner
Senior PPP Expert
Senior PPP Expert
Senior PPP Expert
Senior Infrastructure Expert
