Matthieu Favas
Matthieu Favas is the editor of Agri Investor. He was previously the web editor of Infrastructure Investor, where he started in 2013 after a year as a reporter at Private Equity International. Prior to joining PEI he spent four years in the wine industry in London, Spain and Mongolia.
A consortium teaming up Australian fund managers with overseas institutions will buy a 99-year lease for NSW’s electricity grid.
The deal is the second secured by the UK’s BIG, a biomass-focused platform launched last month by Infracapital, Helios, Aurium and Foresight.
The asset manager has completed the third of five planned deals to buy a 50% stake in the developer’s projects.
The French insurer’s asset management arm has bought eight facilities jointly with New York-listed Medical Properties Trust.
Existing investors could be among the parties interested in the 50-asset portfolio, which the Dutch firm hopes to value at about €700m.
The investment will be funded by a $1bn ‘automatic’ co-investment platform the Kuwaiti sovereign wealth fund just agreed to double in size.
Richard Laing will replace Peter Sedgwick as chairman at a time when the UK-listed firm is steering towards riskier strategies.
While state-backed funds have become players to be reckoned with, traditional infrastructure investors needn’t always see them as adversaries.
%2080.jpg "Southern Europe: Back with a vengeance")
After a few years of economic and regulatory turmoil, Southern European infrastructure markets are on the up again. Have investors been too quick to forgive? Matthieu Favas reports
Insurers at the heart of new platforms, which will benefit from credit enhancement and are modelled on a $3bn pilot created for the Chinese central bank.