Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations has announced the creation of a unit dedicated to infrastructure investment – CDC Infrastructure. The new vehicle intends to acquire minority stakes in PPPs across the transport, energy and environmental sectors. CDC Infrastructure will mostly target brownfields and starts with a portfolio of nine holdings worth €600m.
The global private equity investor has changed hands for the second time in six years.
Ferrovial subsidiary Amey has sold a 50% stake in its PFI business – Amey Ventures – to DIF Infrastructure Fund II. The deal will give DIF equal ownership of 10 PFI projects but doesn’t include Amey’s beleaguered contract to upgrade London’s underground rail. Amey’s PFI portfolio is said to be worth over £300m.
Indian developers GMR Infrastructure and Oriental Structural Engineers have been awarded a 19-year concession to build, operate and eventually transfer back to public ownership the 99km Hungund to Hospet stretch of highway in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
The Soteria consortium - including Royal Bank of Scotland, French defence contractor Thales and helicopter specialist CHC – has been selected as the preferred bidder for the UK’s £5bn Search and Rescue Helicopter PFI. The contract will last for 25 years with the private partner to start providing services to the Ministry of Defence in 2012.
Magnus Christensson has left placement agent Atlantic-Pacific after nearly eight years to help build Jefferies’ global placement business.
Royal Bank of Scotland has pulled together a club of eight banks to join it in reaching financial close for Bilfinger Berger’s €562m Peninsula Link – a 25-kilometre road near Melbourne. The deal reasserts RBS’ presence in the PPP market, after it was forced to scale back its activity when it ran into trouble following the financial crisis.
Consortia led by Bouygues, Eiffage and VINCI have submitted initial offers for the construction of France’s ‘Pentagon’ – a €600m building in Paris which aims to concentrate all of the nation’s top military officials. A second round of bidding is scheduled for July 1 2010.
Ahmed Heikal, founder of the Cairo-based private equity firm, has issued bullish predictions about the improvements Citadel can make to the railway. A regulatory commission is deciding whether to give Citadel majority ownership of the line and a decision could come as early as next week.
A subsidiary of Spanish construction company FCC together with Egyptian firm Orascom Construction have reached financial close for the pathfinder PPP – the €360m New Cairo wastewater treatment facility. Four regional banks provided debt for the project.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has bought a 15% stake in London’s Gatwick airport. The deal is part of Global Infrastructure Partners’ plan to syndicate equity after it purchased Gatwick. The sale of a 12% stake to South Korea’s National Pension Service, announced earlier this week, is also part of the same syndication.
Portugal’s recently appointed public works minister has said that the country’s motorway concessions programme has been put on hold indefinitely as the government now focuses on developing high-speed rail and Lisbon’s new airport. The decision will not affect projects currently in procurement.
Boris Johnson, London’s Mayor, has strongly criticised the PPP contract to upgrade the London underground, calling contractors Ferrovial and Bechtel 'a bunch of rogue builders' and describing the PPP contract as 'larceny'. Tube Lines responds and urges Mayor to "stop playing games".
The Spanish government has included a series of measures in this year’s budget that will allow it to bail out several road concessionaires which ran into problems with lower than expected traffic and, more importantly, higher than expected land expropriation costs. Help comes in the form of low-interest loans from the government, increased tolls, and extensions to the concessions’ life.
The National Pension Service is planning to buy a 12% stake in London’s Gatwick Airport from Global Infrastructure Partners.