RAFAEL MATAS TRILLO is presently Head of the Andean Region and Energy Sector Lead, in the Infrastructure and Energy Division of IDB Invest, based at IDB Invest’s head-office. He has been working for the IDB Group since 2007, leading the development of transportation, renewable energy, transmission and water and sanitation transactions in Latin-America.
As Head of the Andean Region since 2020, Mr. Matas leads a team that has structured and financed paramount transactions such as Lima Airport, the Rumichaca-Pasto and Pamplona-Cucuta 4G toll-roads through social bonds, the first solar PV project finance transactions in Colombia, and the largest wind projects in Peru to date with Engie and Enel, among others.
He is presently also the Energy Sector Lead of IDB Invest, where he leverages on the experience and knowledge of the energy markets, obtained throughout the last 17 years helping countries to develop its PPA frameworks (such as Uruguay or the Dominican Republic), structuring numerous solar, wind and green transmission transactions (in Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Colombia), and designing innovative products such as the first Total Credit Guarantee from the IDB Group to wrap a debenture of infrastructure to finance a wind transaction in Brazil, or the IDB Invest Green Transmission Line Certificate.
A Spanish national, he has received awards for innovative project finance execution. Previous to the IDB Group, Mr. Matas worked for the Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) in its Hong Kong office for two years, managing the Spanish desk of the BBVA in China, and mainly devoting to corporate finance transactions.
He has a Law Degree and LLM by ESADE (Spain) and a Master in Foreign Service by Georgetown University.
For the last two decades, there has been a boost in renewable energies in our region, initially led by Brazil, Chile and Mexico, which benefited from economies of scale when renewable energy generation costs went down and followed later by many other countries.
The question of how impact investors can be persuaded to allocate resources to Latin America & the Caribbean is key to the region’s future.
You probably haven't heard yet about a great way to ensure the sustainability of the energy sector: green transmission lines. These lines contribute to decarbonize interconnected national grids and feature top notch social practices.
COVID-19 has presented an additional challenge to the expansion of water and sanitation access in the region, with a reduction in related investments; public-private partnerships and other resources such as access to local currency financing are expected to help expand private investment in the sector.