AXA Private Equity, Antin Infrastructure Partners, Goldman Sachs and Macquarie have expressed an initial interest in buying Spanish utility Endesa’s gas network in a deal that could be worth over €700m. Binding bids are expected in mid-September.
Capital Dynamics has put itself in the vanguard of what it believes is a major new investment theme
Brazil’s federal audit court has given the go-ahead for the Rio-São Paulo high-speed train, known as the bullet train, after cutting its price by $837m. A tender for the technically challenging project – it will require 91km of tunnels and 103km of bridges and viaducts – is now expected by the end of next week.
Mutua Madrileña, a Spanish insurance company, has become one of the country’s largest underground parking lot operators after it acquired FCC’s underground parking business for €120m.
The African mid-market needs to move beyond being a magnet for ‘social’ capital and demonstrate that it can justify investment on purely commercial grounds.
The private equity party is starting to swing in Brazil, but many GPs are keen to point out that opportunities abound throughout the Latin American region.
The private equity industry awaits resolution on the AIFM directive as three-way negotiations between the EU parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission are expected to conclude in July.
Michael Till, co-head of infrastructure investments at the emerging markets specialist, reveals Actis’ plans for its Indian roads joint venture with Tata and explains why ‘capital has to be very patient in emerging markets’.
The listed infrastructure investment company, known as HICL, has acquired a combined 74.9% stake in the Queen Alexandra Hospital project from Carillion and Royal Bank of Scotland for £46.4m. The acquisition takes the number of infrastructure deals in HICL’s portfolio to 34.
Infrastructure fund managers are devising new fund models more suited to their own needs and those of their investors, finds Andy Thomson.
An independent commission unveiled its recommendations yesterday for setting up a state-backed UK green investment bank. They include the creation of a new category of green bonds to satisfy a ‘real demand’ among pensions and insurers ‘for a new type of long-dated instrument’.
The Dutch construction company has been named preferred bidder for the €260m A12 motorway, in the Netherlands, beating competition from consortia led by DIF and Strabag. Financial close is expected in September.
The consortium, which also includes Star Capital, is now in advanced negotiations to purchase HSBC’s rolling stock unit – valued at about £2bn. The sale is expected to be concluded by the end of summer with a club of over 10 banks providing a staple finance package to the winner.
Economic planning council minister Christina Liu says she wants the private sector to fund 30% of the $124bn the Asian tiger's plans to spend on infrastructure over the next eight years. She is also inviting foreign investors to discover a local debt market with a ‘huge amount of capital available’.
Robert Bain, an independent infrastructure consultant and former credit analyst at Standard & Poor’s, says development banks have a responsibility to discourage poorer countries from embracing certain PPP programmes that are likely to prove unaffordable.