The Australian Business Investment Partnership has appointed former NAB executive Mr Ahmed Fahour as interim Chief Executive Officer.

The Australian Business Investment Partnership was announced by the Prime Minister in January 2009 as a temporary contingency measure to provide liquidity support to viable major commercial property projects in Australia.

This Partnership will be initially capitalised at $4 billion, with the Government contribution of $2 billion matched by an equal contribution by Australia’s four major banks. The initial $4 billion capitalisation could be extended via the issuance of government guaranteed debt to create up to $30 billion of loanable capital.

The Partnership will be limited to the re-financing of existing Australian commercial property syndicated loans on commercial terms when the withdrawal of funding by a participant of the syndicate threatens the refinancing of the loan.

The Partnership will focus on completed commercial property investments and partly completed development projects with secured pre-commitments (for example, retail shopping centres, commercial office and industrial property). It will be structured to allow sufficient flexibility to provide financing in other areas of commercial lending, should the need arise and the Government and four major banks jointly agree.