The two fund managers are part of a shortlist of three drafted by the UK’s £760m Northumberland Pension Fund to receive the pension’s debut infrastructure commitment. KKR had originally been awarded the mandate, but the contract was annulled following the departure of team member Simon Hipperson.
The French fund manager is due to hold an interim close this week that should take the amount raised for its third infrastructure fund to around €650m. AXA is aiming for a final close of between €1bn and €1.5bn later this year.
Together with Allianz Capital Partners and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Canadian pension plan has agreed to acquire a 24.1 percent stake in Gassled, a gas transportation business, from Norwegian oil company Statoil.
The acquisition of a 75% stake in the Brentwood Community Hospital PFI takes the number of assets in HICL’s portfolio to 41. HICL has almost tripled the size of its portfolio over the last five years.
Our second ranking of the 30 largest infrastructure investors in the world is dominated by independent fund managers and marked by the rise of several pension schemes.
The fund’s last investment comprised £23.5m of subordinated loans to five UK healthcare and accommodation projects. London-based Gravis expects to tap the market again later this year for a fresh round of fundraising.
The £1bn Shropshire County Pension Fund has allocated 3 percent of its total portfolio to its debut infrastructure investment – a £30m commitment to Global Infrastructure Partners’ second infrastructure fund, which is seeking to raise between $5bn and $6bn.
Sir Adrian Montague, chairman of 3i Group, has been appointed by the UK government to chair the advisory group that will help it set up a Green Investment Bank. The bank will start investing in April 2012 and will be able to borrow by 2015 or 2016.
The UK listed infrastructure investor currently holds 40 infrastructure investments after it spent over £168m on acquisitions over the last year.
InfraRed Capital Partners, the management team that spun out of HSBC at the beginning of this month, has completed its first infrastructure deal since then – advising HICL Infrastructure and Kajima Partnerships on the acquisition of three PFI stakes from Kier.
The alternative investment arm of Deutsche Bank has raised around €620m of the €2bn to €3bn it is targeting for its second European infrastructure fund. The fund is expected to reach a final close in 2012.
The Bahrain-based fund manager has closed an investment in the Barka 1 Independent Water and Power Project (IWPP). The deal is Instrata’s second investment in a Middle Eastern IWPP and comes ahead of fundraising for a planned second fund.
The Melbourne-based fund manager has managed to attract investments from several Australian institutional investors including Future Fund, Mercer Investments, Qantas Superannuation Plan and Sunsuper. Westbourne has already deployed A$400m in seven infrastructure debt investments.
Our annual ranking of the asset class’s largest investors is now well under way, with some interesting stories emerging from the data.
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.