The second Indian infrastructure fund being raised by the London-listed firm will expand its investment remit to include areas such as education and healthcare, where the involvement of private capital has to date been limited.
Castilla-La Mancha is nine months behind its agreed shadow toll payments for a road concession awarded to an ACS subsidiary. Moody’s says there is ‘growing evidence that Castilla-La Mancha is prioritising core expenditures ahead of its payment obligations’ to the concessionaire.
Strong demand has seen the Toronto asset manager raise an extra $60m in its recently announced public offering. Proceeds from the offer will be used to finance new Chilean acquisitions and its Australian portfolio. Brookfield will continue to hold 30% of its infrastructure unit.
The £65m subordinated debt fund is aiming to raise a further £60m through a new share issue to capitalise on a ‘significant pipeline of opportunities available’. The fund recently lent £15m to a portfolio of 1,500 domestic solar panel installations in England.
Groupe BCE, France’s second-largest banking group, has launched FIDEPPP2 ‘to help finance the French economy’ via public-private partnerships. The fund will be subscribed exclusively by Groupe BCE subsidiaries including Natixis, which will also manage the new vehicle.
The European Commission is proposing to use €230m to fund a test phase for its Europe 2020 Project Bond initiative, to be implemented in 2012-2013. The pilot programme, part of a wider €50bn infrastructure facility, will target up to 10 projects and ‘is expected to mobilise investments of up to €4.6bn’.
The EIB is considering investing €25m in the new vehicle. Sequoia has established a partnership with three banks that will provide assets into the fund, which is aiming to reach a first close during this quarter of between €100m and €200m.
The London-based European infrastructure investor has successfully refinanced £161m of debt facilities on behalf of portfolio company ESP, the third-largest independent gas transportation business in the UK.
The African Infrastructure Fund 2, advised by Macquarie and Old Mutual Investment Group, has reached final close. About 24% of the fund has already been committed in the transport sector.
A survey has highlighted that, despite having an appetite for UK infrastructure, pension funds are being dissauded from investing by the government’s unclear position on the Private Finance Initiative.
The ‘Connecting Europe Facility’ will be unveiled next week and will focus exclusively on trans-European transport, energy and ICT projects. Between 15% and 20% of the proposed €50bn in spending will be leveraged through financial instruments and public-private partnerships.
With fears mounting over the weakening global economy, investors kept their wallets closed in Q3 2011. Just $2.8bn was raised in the quarter, meaning that the global fundraising total this year is likely to be less than in 2010.
The managing director and chief executive of JPMorgan Asset Management’s Infrastructure Investments Group says he believes infrastructure is the ‘Holy Grail’ for institutional investors and could represent as large a slice of investor portfolios as real estate within 10 to 15 years.
The subordinated debt fund is channelling up to £15m in loans to a portfolio of 1,500 domestic solar panel installations in England. The £65m PFI fund – fully invested – is considering raising new equity and putting in place debt facilities to capitalise on an ‘accelerated pipeline of opportunities’.
A club of 12 banks is providing a seven-year loan to fund the team’s recent acquisition of GDF Suez’s Italian gas grid and re-leverage two other local gas grids bought over the last two years. AXA/F2i is now Italy’s second-largest gas distributor.