The Commercial Advisory Division provides a wide range of commercial advisory services related to financial and contractual arrangements between government and private entities, including industry assistance, and the South Australian (SA) Venture Capital Fund.

Structuring financial support packages and fund guidelines

The Commercial Advisory Division can work with its customers, i.e. state government agencies, to structure arrangements for financial assistance under contract.  We can also assist structure guidelines for funds under which South Australian entities may be eligible to apply for government grants or loans. We can provide you solutions with financial support and fund guidelines.

Funds under the management of SAFA include :

We work closely with policy areas of government to ensure policy objectives for the State will be met when structuring fund guidelines and financial assistance contracts.

Our customers are engaged in the process and we work collaboratively with them to structure fund guidelines and financial contracts.

Financial Reviews

SAFA assists government make informed decisions by undertaking financial reviews of entities prior to the awarding of contracts.  We can assist with investigation of corporate structures, financial position, creditworthiness, commercial and operational status.  We can also assess and appraise project proposals as part of its financial review, and in particular identify strategies to limit the government’s exposure and mitigate risk.  SAFA employees have significant experience participating as members of Assessment Panels and in forming recommendations for provision of assistance packages to government.

Contract formation, negotiation, restructures and settlement (recovery)

SAFA has prepared, managed, renegotiated and settled hundreds of financial assistance packages under contract and has invested in systems and processes to prudentially manage these on behalf of the Treasurer or SAFA itself (school loans).

We have expertise establishing and negotiating contractual terms, structure of contracts and appropriate security arrangements with counterparties and solicitors, and the preparation of appropriate documentation including letters of offer, term sheets and funding agreements.

We manage complex contracts and financial arrangements and can assist our customers in these arrangements.  We have expertise in establishing processes and procedures to ensure contractual obligations are being met and conditions for the payment of grants and loans have been satisfied and  provide advice on appropriate processes in instances of contract default, including steps to remedy the default and recover assistance monies paid, and/or negotiate settlement and release.

Examples of some of the industry assistance packages managed by SAFA include:

  • Adelaide Oval Hotel Development – a loan of up to $42 million for the hotel construction at Adelaide Oval
  • Bushfire loans - Commercial Advisory has continued to administer the concessional bushfire loans scheme since it was announced by the Treasurer’s in February 2020.
  • School Loans – as at 30 June 2019 - 24 schools were recipients of loans under the scheme for a total of $90.3 million.