The UK’s second-largest pension has lent £100m of 25-year inflation-linked debt to utility South East Water - its first ever infrastructure debt investment.
The BAE Systems Pension Funds, BT Pension Scheme, Pension Protection Fund, The Railways Pension Scheme, Strathclyde Pension Fund and West Midlands Pension Fund are the founding members of the £2bn Pensions Infrastructure Platform. Together, the schemes manage some £88bn.
A new runway could double capacity to 70 million passengers a year. Legally, it can only be built from 2019 onwards, but an approval could prove a boon for GIP, who will have owned Gatwick for 10 years and would be looking at exiting a more valuable airport.
The French bank has teamed up with Ageas to help the insurance company build a €2bn infrastructure debt portfolio over the next two to three years.
The firm has raised £144m through its London-listed debt fund, more than doubling the size of the vehicle after seeking to raise in excess of £80m. One-third of the new money, which will be deployed over the next six months, came from new investors.
The €18bn Danish pension fund has established Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a new single-LP fund to which it is committing €800m to be invested in the next four years. The fund will be managed by ex-employees of Dong Energy. A planned second fund will target external investors.
Allianz Global Investors has set up a renewables team and is gearing up to launch a renewables fund in the first quarter of 2013. The fund will target a diversified portfolio of renewable assets across Europe and, potentially, other OECD countries.
Private equity stalwart Guy Hands is in early talks with the China Development Bank on launching a global renewables-focused fund. Terra Firma will help sell the fund to European and US investors while the Chinese bank will focus on Chinese LPs.
The Florida State Board of Administration allocated $150m to Global Infrastructure Partners’ second infrastructure fund, which recently closed on a record-breaking $8.25bn. The debut infrastructure investment is part of a wider commitment to the alternatives space.
The Singapore-listed Macquarie International Infrastructure Fund, which mainly targets investments in east and south-east Asia, has announced a strategic review which could lead to anything from carrying on with business as usual to winding down the fund.
The Danish pension fund, which is aiming to invest 10 percent of its capital in infrastructure-like assets, has acquired 50 percent of three wind farm assets in Texas and Pennsylvania from Germany’s E.ON.
The Dutch fund manager has recruited Macquarie Capital’s head of Canadian power, utilities and renewables – Paul Huebener – to lead its newly opened Toronto office. DIF, which is raising a third, €600m infrastructure fund, plans to use the new office to target North American P3s.
The German asset manager has reached a first close on €50m for its debut infrastructure fund - a renewable vehicle primarily targeting wind farms across Europe. Christoph Schumacher, who used to be head of indirect investments at Generali, is heading the effort.
The emerging markets private equity and infrastructure investor has committed $32m to Asiri Group, a private hospital business with more than 600 beds in Colombo and Matara.
The Japanese investment group spent close to $93m buying the stake in Gas Natural Mexico, which serves 1.3m people across Mexico. The sellers were Spanish utility Iberdrola and a group of other shareholders in the Mexican distributor.