Asset manager Commerz Real will run Amprion, the largest of four German transmission operators, on behalf of a consortium of insurance companies and pension funds, which acquired a 74.9% interest in the company from RWE in July.
The London-based fund manager has appointed former Macquarie senior managing director Erich Becker as co-head of its renewable energy and environmental infrastructure team. The firm has just launched a new fund, which will broaden its infra strategy from solar to renewable energy in general.
The government of New South Wales has announced the 99-year lease of Sydney’s Port Botany in a bid to net around $2bn to help fund other infrastructure projects. A $2bn desalination plant in Sydney will also be privatised, with expressions of interest expected later this year.
Ferrovial, Allianz, AXA, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Industry Funds Management, Global Infrastructure Partners and Abertis are part of the seven consortia that have lined up to bid for the two airports in a deal that might net the government upwards of €10bn.
The Spanish developer’s concessions arm has been awarded a further 247km of transmission lines in Brazil, where it has over 3,000km of transmission lines in total. The 30-year concession is expected to involve capital expenditure of almost €130m and deliver annual revenues of nearly €12m.
The Italian developer has paid €30m to acquire an extra 10% in Brazil’s Triângulo do Sol Auto – the operator of a 442km toll motorway network in São Paulo – increasing its total shareholding in the firm to 60%. Atlantia plans to acquire another 10% of the concessionaire once this transaction closes.
The French fund manager has acquired Idex, billed as ‘France’s largest independent energy and environmental services company’, from private equity firm IK Investment Partners for an undisclosed amount. Idex posted sales of €525m as of February 2011.
Lord Stern, who produced a landmark report on climate change, is part of a group of nine advisors appointed by the government to help 3i’s Sir Adrian Montague set up the UK’s Green Investment Bank.
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board has acquired a 5% stake in the Norwegian gas transport network from Shell. The Canadian pension joins the likes of Allianz Capital Partners, CPPIB and ADIA, which spent close to €2.8bn buying into Gassled over the summer.
Limited partners, especially pension funds and life insurers, will readily tell you that they like infrastructure because of its long-term, stable cash-flows. So why do they prefer infrastructure funds with 10- to 12-year life-cycles?
Partners Group, the Switzerland-based private markets investment manager, has continued its international expansion with the launch of a new office in Paris. The firm, which now has 15 offices in total around the world, has opened five of these offices since the beginning of last year.
As the infrastructure asset class matures, two quite different types of investment are emerging. Former Allianz Capital Partners chief executive Thomas Putter explains why an understanding of this is so crucial
The Dutch pension provider is due to finish investing the PGGM Infrastructure Fund in December, after which it plans to start forming a new fund in early 2012. The two-year fund has currently invested €1bn and is targeting a yield of 5% for its three pension clients.
Limited partners, especially pension funds and life insurers, will readily tell you that they like infrastructure because of its long-term, stable cash-flows. So why do they prefer infrastructure funds with 10- to 12-year life-cycles?
Following the controversy over the Thameslink PFI bid, after which transport company Bombardier announced 1,400 UK job losses, the Crossrail rolling stock and depot procurement has been delayed by a year so that a UK government review of EU procurement rules can be taken into account.