Most contractors enter a negotiation with the wrong assumption.

They think:

“The agency has the money.

The agency has the power.

The agency has the contract.

So the agency has all the leverage.”

Not in their dreams…

In PPPs and major infrastructure projects, agencies also carry something very heavy:

Loss aversion.

They do not want a project failure.

They do not want the Minister asking questions.

They do not want the newspaper headline.

They do not want the contractor collapsing.

They do not want the board asking why the risk was not managed earlier.

They do not want another embarrassing briefing note explaining why the project is delayed, over budget, underperforming, or politically toxic.

Yes, the agency may control the payment mechanism.

Yes, the agency may have contractual power.

Yes, the agency may have the lawyers.

But they also have careers, reputations, public scrutiny, political pressure, audit risk, media risk, and institutional embarrassment sitting on their side of the table.

And that changes everything… for both sides.

In my experience, in any negotiation, the strongest party is not always the one with the biggest contract.

Sometimes it is the one who understands what the other side is most afraid of losing.

In operational PPPs in particular, there is often value sitting in places nobody is looking at:

Unclaimed entitlements.

Weakly managed variations.

Poorly documented failures.

Commercial positions never properly developed.

Risk transfers that are not being enforced.

Client behaviours that are inconsistent with the contract.

Performance regimes being applied mechanically, not commercially.

The problem?

Most SPVs are too busy surviving operations to see it.

They attend meetings.

They respond to issues.

They manage the noise.

They keep the client and stakeholders “happy enough.”

But slowly, value leaks out of the project.

This is exactly why we created the 30-Day Asset Review.

We take one PPP or infrastructure asset and look at it commercially, contractually, and strategically.

Not to create another pretty report.

But to answer one question:

Where is the hidden leverage?

Because once you understand the agency’s real concerns, the contractor’s real position, and the contract’s real pressure points, you can often recover value that was sitting there all along.

The client may have the money.

But that does not mean they have all the leverage.

Sometimes, they are more afraid of loss than you are.

And if you know how to play that properly, professionally, and without burning the relationship, there may be a lot more value and win-wins in your project than you think.

If you want me to review one of your assets, book a call and let’s see what is sitting under the surface.

30 days. One asset. Hidden value found.

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