The Portuguese infrastructure fund was launched in 2008 with a target of €500m. Two years on, the fund has completed its fourth investment but is now targeting a less ambitious €200m. InfrastructureInvestor caught up with CEO Manuel Cary to learn about the fund’s strategy in the wake of the financial crisis.
The infrastructure investors have each acquired a 12.5% stake in the £1.7bn Bart’s Hospital PFI – the UK’s largest hospital PFI. The sellers were the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and John Laing. Both DIF and Innisfree have lately been active in the secondary market for PFI projects.
The Portuguese infrastructure fund has formed a joint-venture with Polish company NDI to hold a 25% stake in the concessionaire that is building and maintaining the northern section of Poland’s A1 highway.
When governments splurge cash in the years running up to the worst global economic slump for decades, you know the adage about repenting at leisure will end up being horribly apt. But when public finance runs dry, you also know it spells opportunity for sources of private capital.
When governments splurge cash in the years running up to the worst global economic slump for decades, you know the adage about repenting at leisure will end up being horribly apt. But when public finance runs dry, you also know it spells opportunity for sources of private capital.
Our inaugural Infrastructure Investor annual awards for 2009 are off to a flying start, and it is clear that in many crucial categories the eventual place on the winner’s rostrum is too close to call.
The Australian infrastructure fund plans to use the £168m it has just received from the sale of a UK water company to reinforce its capital position and deleverage over the next two years.
The Belgian transmission operator said today it is planning to buy a controlling stake in Vattenfall’s German grid. Vattenfall reopened the auction for its grid in November after exclusive talks with a Goldman Sachs/Allianz/RREEFF consortium broke down over price.
In a manifesto published today, the Institution of Civil Engineers has urged the British government not to respond to financial pressures by sidelining essential infrastructure projects. It says a new national infrastructure bank would help attract private sources of funding.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of the Dubai, has created a Dubai Government Media Office to handle PR for the emirate. The move follows strong criticism of the handling of the Dubai World debt crisis.
A new law is set to be approved in February that will allow the government to launch a three-year, €15bn infrastructure programme, to be procured in conjunction with the private sector. The new law will allow the government to guarantee private sector debt.
The Australian investor is said to be in talks with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to submit a joint bid for French firm EDF’s UK electricity network. Goldman Sachs and Lexicon Partners are reportedly advising the consortium on their bid.
A strong level of lending to infrastructure projects in India is bucking the trend of a weaker credit climate overall, according to new figures from the Reserve Bank of India.
The BNP Paribas-sponsored infrastructure fund has acquired about a third of the Pisto Group from several of Macquarie’s infrastructure funds. Pisto is a holding company for three oil storage and transportation operators in France.
Mexican firms IDEAL and ICA together with Spain’s Acciona Agua and a subsidiary of Japanese investor Mitsui & Co. have won a $726m contract to build and operate one of the world’s largest wastewater treatment plants. The plant will be located close to Mexico City.