Hill International’s advisory platform, Hill Advisory, provides a range of upstream technical advisory services on behalf of international investors, governmental authorities, financial institutions, and developers around the world. In Europe, our technical advisory expertise encompasses transaction support for privatizations, mergers, and acquisitions; portfolio due diligence across various asset classes, including residential, office, logistics, hospitality, commercial, and energy; lender’s technical advisory; project maturation and permitting; highest and best use analysis; and cost advisory for capital and operational expenditures. With this expertise, Hill’s European advisory team helps clients mature and deliver major infrastructure and real estate projects, as well as a variety of transactions and concession programs.

“Hill’s technical advisory services serve as a stepping stone toward fully integrated project management solutions,” says Hill President, Europe Manolis Sigalas. “We are proud to help our clients throughout Europe mature their capital investments with an approach tailored to their vision, expected return on investment, and schedule requirements.”

Customizable Services & Wide Applicability

“Technical advisory services are customizable and applicable to a wide range of business activities,” says Hill International’s Head of Real Estate, Spain Pilar Pereira. “In Europe, our service offerings differ slightly from country to country, but those differences respond primarily to the different needs of each market.”

According to Pilar, Hill represents European governments and public organizations implementing infrastructure projects; public agencies and private entities involved in privatizing public assets or executing concession programs; financial institutions funding infrastructure, hospitality, energy, and other building projects; as well as organizations engaged in private transactions such as asset acquisitions, disposals, and mergers and acquisitions.

Based on a client’s needs, existing capabilities, and position—whether as buyers, investors, or sellers—as well as local market conditions and other factors, Hill’s professionals develop a tailored suite of services. “Banks and financial entities usually require due diligence and project monitoring to help make certain projects they fund will provide a satisfactory return on their investment,” explains Pilar. “For public agencies or private firms planning a project, services that assure the quality of the end product or end-user satisfaction may be more important.”

The location of a technical advisory assignment also matters. Local clients in mature economies such as Spain, generally possess a strong understanding of local conditions, as well as sophisticated due diligence processes tailored to their markets. However, such organizations also understand the value of technical advisory services and rely on Hill’s expertise to forecast and plan for downstream design and construction risks across large portfolios encompassing hospitality, commercial, office, retail, higher-education, residential, industrial, and pharmaceutical projects.

Clients in emerging markets may require more comprehensive technical advisory support as they identify and mitigate legal and administrative risks early in the life cycle of individual investments, transactions, or projects. Technical advisory services continue to grow in these markets as organizations increasingly recognize the value of a trusted advisor who can deliver reliable forecasting and risk management.

In addition, investors with limited local experience often vie for opportunities in European markets both mature and emerging. These investors may require support identifying and resolving issues associated with everything from local conditions and utilities to logistics, procurement, and regulatory frameworks.

“In Greece, construction is booming,” adds Head of Advisory Services, Greece Dimitra Diamantidou. “We have major infrastructure works like the Ellinikon spurring additional development, as well as special funding opportunities available, such as the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, REPowerEU, ReArm Europe Plan, etc. So, we are seeing many investments across different sectors and an increased demand for technical expertise through initial upstream technical advisory roles.”

Downstream Impacts

Despite the heterogeneity of the service and Europe’s markets, the results are consistent: technical advisory helps resolve issues prior to investment, transaction, or project costs and helps ensure that clients take the right steps to achieve their organizational objectives.

Unlike traditional due diligence, technical advisory services not only help organizations gauge feasibility, but also clarify how to move initiatives forward. “The client gets a picture of their project,” explains Pilar. “By performing technical advisory services, we analyze our clients’ investments in the context of the market at a given point in time. In this moment, we can say, here is what’s going on, here is what’s going wrong: we don’t have this document or permit or license, and this information is contradictory, but the cost estimates look good, and we have the right legal expertise in place. Then, of course, we analyze the situation and provide advice that allows clients to bring their investment forward to a better place. But the picture we provide is an important part of the service, empowering our clients to make informed decisions that have lasting impacts downstream and giving them a template for future analyses.”

Because of Hill’s project and construction management experience, the advisory team’s technical advisory services also help ensure that planned design and construction methods meet required standards and adhere to industry best practices, preventing rework, change orders, and schedule delays down the line. Additionally, with local expertise in markets throughout Europe, the advisory team helps clients quickly navigate local regulatory frameworks, interface effectively with local utilities and other stakeholders, and procure strong local teams with the right skills and experience.

Moreover, technical advisory services can lead to stronger negotiations, adds Pilar. “In the context of transactions, whether we are working for sellers or buyers, we provide administrative support and document control prior to negotiations, help plan negotiation strategies, answer technical questions, and provide cost estimates,” she explains, noting that negotiation support can lead to more favorable business deals, as it fortifies client perspectives with objective data.

An Investment, Transaction, & Project Life Cycle Partner

Technical advisory’s wide applicability and customizability allow Hill to support a diverse pool of clients engaged in a variety of business activities in multiple markets. Encompassing due diligence, scheduling and cost estimating, document control, permitting, risk management, regulatory compliance, project monitoring, procurement, negotiations, and more, technical advisory support benefits clients’ investments at multiple levels. The result is an increased likelihood of success in accordance with client expectations. Plus, Hill is prepared to follow clients’ project investments all the way through completion and handover with project and construction management services.

“Our objective,” says Dimitra, “is to be the go-to advisor for governments, investors, funding institutions, and developers, creating a one-stop shop across the whole project life cycle. By showcasing the depth and expertise of our staff with upstream technical advisory services, we are positioned to do exactly that.”

“Our technical advisory clients’ investments often represent transformative improvements for our communities and our infrastructure,” adds Manolis. “Launching these initiatives well is paramount to realizing their benefits. Pilar and Dimitra, as well as Technical and Operations Director Fernando Ortiz Oliveira and the rest of our exceptional technical advisory team stand at the ready to support new and existing clients with their collective experience and expertise, and, with our bench of project and construction managers, we look forward to serving clients for the entire life cycle of their investments, transactions, and projects.”

To learn more about Hill’s technical advisory practice in Europe, please reach out to Pilar (Spain) at [email protected], or Dimitra (Greece) at [email protected]. To learn more about the depth and breadth of Hill Advisory’s services and experience, please visit www.hillintl.com/home/hill-advisory/.