The UK-listed infrastructure investment firm more than doubled its portfolio income during the last financial year, according to annual results released today. The firm upped its investment rate during the period, putting nearly £200m to work.
The EU/IMF bailout of Portugal hints at a new type of risk for investors: be ‘complicit’ with investment programmes of dubious fiscal soundness and you may be made to pay the price further down the line.
International law firm Hogan Lovells has bolstered its infrastructure and project finance practice in London with the appointment of two new energy partners.
The share of renewable energy in the European Union’s energy mix currently stands at 9%. But for the decade ending 2020, Europe wants 20% of its energy to come from green sources. To do that, it needs to find an extra €35bn a year, writes Bruno Alves
Portugal will have to look into its PPP contracts with a view to ‘reduce the government’s financial obligations’ as part of the €78bn EU/IMF bailout provided to the country. The bailout also encourages the government to try and reduce feed-in tariffs for existing renewable contracts.
The US-based fund manager has closed its first energy infrastructure fund on $1.2bn after around 17 months on the fundraising trail. The fund had a target size of between $1bn and $1.5bn.
The European PPP Expertise Centre found that the average tenor for senior debt exceeded 20 years in 2010 with average loan margins hovering between 240bps for construction and 275bps when loans approach maturity. 112 PPP deals worth more than €18bn reached financial close last year.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is considering investing €100m in the Meridiam Infrastructure Eastern Europe Fund. The sub-vehicle will form part of Meridiam’s second European infrastructure fund, for which it has currently raised about half of the €1bn it is targeting.
HSBC Specialist Investments has been renamed InfraRed Capital Partners. The infrastructure and real estate platform has more than $4bn of capital under management. HSBC will consider further commitments to future funds of InfraRed on a 'case by case' basis.
The National Audit Office has issued a report calling in strident terms for alternatives to the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) to be considered. PFI, which is the UK’s standard method of procurement for infrastructure projects, has come under increasing fire for allegedly failing to provide value for money.
DIF Infrastructure, the Netherlands-based infrastructure fund manager, has released details of an investment it made in a fully operational Danish accommodation project at the end of March.
In an exclusive interview with Infrastructure Investor, leading businessman Sir Gerry Robinson said that owners of infrastructure assets will be ‘forced to confront reality’ as a refinancing wall looms. Robinson recently joined start-up fund manager Ancala Partners as a founding partner.
Aided by the huge Resorts World at Sentosa refinancing in Singapore, the social infrastructure sector usurped the traditional dominance of energy and transport in Infrastructure Investor’s global league tables for the first quarter of this year.
Indian banks took a stranglehold on Infrastructure Investor’s global mandated lead arranger (MLA) league table for the first quarter of 2011, accounting for no less than four of the top ten places. The banks all lent large amounts to an Indian mobile network project.
The recent foreclosure of a UK ferry operator owned by three Australian pension funds and Macquarie is a textbook example of how a perfectly acceptable deal in 2005 can go very wrong in 2011