McKinsey co-head of infrastructure Robert Palter warns that only a better alignment of interests between LPs and GPs will save infrastructure from going down the same path as the buyout industry.
Turkish airports operator TAV has secured €250m in debt from the EBRD, Unicredit, Siemens Bank, Denizbank and the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank. Expect the long-running $1.2bn Eurasia Tunnel Project to also reach financial close this week.
The African Development Bank caught the private sector's attention in Senegal thanks to its bold approach in structuring and procuring four interlinked infrastructure projects worth €1.3bn.
Madeleine Albright, the former US Secretary of State, touched on the challenge of changing citizens’ approach to paying for infrastructure as participants at McKinsey’s Global Infrastructure Initiative highlighted governments' ambivalence towards the asset class.
The world’s largest infrastructure investor has launched a new infrastructure debt business, which has raised $500m from Swiss Re. Following BlackRock’s announcement of a new infra debt team earlier this week, it is clear that this previously nascent trend now has strong momentum.
Philippe Benaroya, Chris Wrenn and Gilles Lengaigne – who worked together at Blackstone/GSO for over 10 years – are launching BlackRock’s European infrastructure debt investment unit in London. The team will target investment grade infrastructure debt investments for insurers and other investors.
Heiko Schupp, who joined London-based funds of funds manager Pantheon in November last year, has now joined the London office of Australia’s Hastings Funds Management as an investment director.
The Spanish developer has struck a new shareholder agreement following recent stake sales in Heathrow Airport Holdings – formerly known as BAA – which will allow it to cut its current 33.65% stake in the airports operator down to 20%.
The N33 DBFM contract will get 70% of its debt via an inflation-linked loan from Dutch pension provider APG. The pension funding will kick in once construction ends and will refinance the bank debt provided by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, KfW-Ipex and Rabobank.
Cairo-based private equity firm Citadel Capital has formed a joint venture with QInvest and other Qatari investors to construct and own a liquefied natural gas facility in Egypt. The move comes amid an energy crisis in the country.
London's High Court reminded Henderson's LPs that limited liability comes with limited control. But its verdict will do nothing to prevent the reputational damage inflicted by a full-blown investor revolt.
New Zealand’s first privately financed highway will take traffic risk away from investors, eliminating a risk that has doomed countless Australian highways. The NZ$1bn-plus project is the country’s first road PPP.
Start-up fund manager Prostar Capital, which was launched earlier this year, has reached a significant milestone for its fund. The firm, which has offices in Sydney, Connecticut and Singapore, is targeting global energy and energy infrastructure opportunities.
The government aims to reduce its road PPP liabilities by 30% in 2013 and wants those cuts to be part of next year’s budget.
The listed UK infrastructure investment firm has made £5.3m from the sale of an interest in the Doncaster Schools PFI project, one of 26 assets it acquired from Barclays Infrastructure Funds Management in a £143m deal in December 2011.